Agent of the Arbitrators
by scarred by a grizzly
Summary: an infant boy is crossed with Yautja DNA in a human experiment, 16 years later his life takes a turn he never imagined. Please! Read and Review
1. where it all began

_Disclamer: I do not own predator, Any similarities between characters in this fiction and those in real life and other fiction is purley coincidental _

Agent of the Arbitrators

Summary: an infant boy is crossed with Yautja DNA in a human experiment, 16 years later his life takes a turn he never imagined.

Where it all began:

Location: Military facility "High Peak", Rocky Mountains

Personnel: Science Team: 30 Enlisted Men: 64 Officers: 4

Purpose: "Classified"

Year: 2002

General Samuel Richards had a bad feeling bout this particular project; he had been in charge of High Peak for 5 years and because of this he had seen his share of strange occurrences. "Last time I apply for freak detail" he thought to himself. He and the scientists knew that High Peak was a bio weapons lab where the military conducted experiments that weren't exactly approved of or even known by most the government. He grimaced at the fact that most of the enlisted however did not know what they were actually guarding.

"General were ready to proceed". Richards turned to regard the man who had spoken to him; it was Paul Sheers the leading scientist of the team at High Peak. "Very well" came his reply in a tone that suggested he was not enthusiastic about what they were about to do, however he turned and followed the scientist down the hall to the med labs. While passing a security checkpoint Sheers excitedly told the general "I believe that this project will turn out to be our greatest success", Richards however wasn't listening he was mulling two projects over in his mind which quite frankly he believed they could do without. One of which had been completed months ago. The facility had received a small cluster of xenomorph eggs and had used science volunteers to breed them. Richards didn't like those monstrosities on his base but they were safely held in the holding cages so he didn't mind too much. The other project however he liked even less.

"Identification please" a mechanical voice snapped Richards out of his thoughts, "interrupt me again and I'll tear your metal ass apart" he thought to himself. Sheers however had already input his I.D and the two of them walked into the med lab, an infant was lying on the medical table surrounded by 4 or 5 scientists that had hooked a needle I.V up to the infant and were waiting for approval before proceeding. Sheers looked at the general. "Proceed" Richards ordered in a flat emotionless tone as he watched the I.V drain the neon green colored blood into the infant. He remembered how this project came to fruition very well, about a month ago an alien dubbed the predator by those who new about it was killed by a group of American special forces soldiers fighting alongside rebel forces in a tribal war in Nigeria. The corpse was preserved, and bought to High Peak where its blood that was still intact was extracted and stored. The aim of the project was to create bio engineered super soldiers that were stronger, faster and could heal quicker. "

Outside the base Private Stan Wellman was pissed of "How come I gotta man this f$#& check point all the time!" he yelled, the other man Private Frank Wheeler sighed angrily. "Because you're always picking fights with brass! Idiot" he yelled back. Stan was about to reply when he heard strange sounds coming from close by the entrance checkpoint. "Hey" Stan yelled to Frank "what" came the reply. "Thought I heard something strange, I'm gonna go check it out". "Fine but make it quick or it'll be both our asses". Stan moved into the snow covered valley assault rifle at the ready, however it was night and visibility outside the base was almost zero. "It's okay its nothi…" Stan sentence was cut off when a spear projectile hit him in the head killing him instantly. "Stan, Stan!" frank called, cocking his rifle while he reached for his radio but he was stopped short when something invisible came out of nowhere with a spear and impaled him. The air filled with electricity as 5 predators switched off their cloak to collect their prize. One of the predators looked to the pack leader "what now Gro'Kesh".

Gro'Kesh looked at the blooded hunter asking him and replied in an irritated tone "our objective is to retrieve the corpse of the fallen young blood and then destroy the Ooman facility. The five reactivated their cloaking devices when they heard the massive base doors opening t allow out the second shift, quickly dispatching the replacement guards the five proceeded inside. "Gi'Ha, release the kiande amedha, they will provide a useful distraction" Gro'Kesh hissed. Gi'Ha took off down the hallway to the room marked "holding cages" and proceeded inside. "Now let's get the fallen young blood corpse and get the Pauk out of here" Gro'Kesh hissed to several growls of agreement.

Sergeant Jose Contreras was checking and preping his weapons, an AR-15 with attached M203 grenade launcher and 45. Caliber pistol when he heard an alarm go off and the base's computer generated voice saying the message "security breech" "security personnel report to holing cages" a few moments later he heard gun fire. Strapping on his armor and readying his weapons he stepped out the door of the barracks and proceeded to the holding cage area. Before he got their however he could hear reports saying that the soldiers near the holding are had been overrun. Just then he heard General Richardson call over the radio for the remaining soldiers to barricade the med lab as all those outside of it were already dead. "That Asshole" Contreras cursed, then he realized that his vitals monitor had been destroyed in a training exercise the day before and he had neglected to mention it. Rounding a corner he spotted to creatures which he knew to be the xenomorphs. "They do look like demons out of hell" he said under his breath, just then the xenomorphs sensing him let out a battle screech, wheeled around and charged. Contreras unloaded on them bringing them both down in bloody smoking heaps. Collecting himself he continued to make his way to the med lab all the while saying sarcastically to himself "why the hell am I so unlucky".

General Richardson remained calm as watched the dozen remaining soldiers arm their weapons and barricade the door. Cocking his pistol he readied himself knowing that this would probably be the end, all the scientists including Sheers had been killed in the initial outbreak, even though their weren't that many xenomorphs most of his men were dead. He couldn't figure it out there were only about 30 xenomorphs and it was reported that more then half of them were dead. What else was killing his men? Well at least he knew one thing the infant experiment was safe with them, he had put it in an incubation unit before the outbreak and it was still in med lab with them. Just then he heard one of his men cry out "What the? Holy S#", He quickly ducked out of the incubator room in time to see blue plasma bolts engulf half his men. The remaining men fired in every direction and Richards hit the deck to avoid being hit. By the time he looked up again all his men had been taken out. Suddenly he spotted the distortions in the room. Drawing his pistol he fired hitting the closest invisible figure in the wrist. An electric wine filled the air as the cloak deactivated and he saw what had killed his men.

"C'jit" Gro'Kesh cursed as the bullet hit his cloaking device making him visible. The Ooman looked taken aback and he would take advantage of that hesitation. Unleashing a roar of anger he charged at the Ooman and impaled him with his wrist blades. "Gro'Kesh, Gi'Ha has finished taking the young blood corpse to the ship". Gro'Kesh let the Ooman crumple to the floor and turned to the hunter that had spoke to him and replied. "Good now we plant the plasma bomb and leave this Pauk-de planet! So gather your trophies and lets move" roars of triumph greeted this statement. Gro'Kesh then set his plasma bomb for the equivalent 30 minutes in human time and followed the other hunters as they rushed out.

As Contreras approached the med lab he immediately knew something was wrong, the doors had been completely blasted and the remaining xenomorphs outside it had all been killed. Worried he stepped into the med lab. "What the f#&" he said in horror. All the men had their heads and spines ripped out. With his assault rifle at the ready he made his way through the room searching for survivors. He had just found the dead general Richards when he heard two things. One was muffled crying of a baby and the other was a chirping which sounded to him like a count down. Running into the adjoining room he located the incubator that held the infant wrapping the infant onto his back as he had seen mothers in Africa do, he ran as fast as he could to the auxiliary entrance which was much closer to him than the main one. Opening the doors he immediately went to the vehicle shack and powered up a snow mobile. He decided he would make his way to a civilian aid station for climbers and back country skiers 8 miles away. When he was about 2 miles away from High Peak he felt the ground shake very violently and a giant explosion of blue blazed into the night sky. When he and the infant reached the aid station he left his guns on the snow mobile but took the baby off his back, cradled it in his arms and said "don't worry I'll always protect you and raise you so you can protect yourself, I can see the fury your eyes even now that you will be a great warrior of whatever it is you choose to fight for". The infant, smiling reached up to his face and touched the deep gash on his face that he had obtained long ago in Somalia. Contreras again spoke to the infant "one such as you deserves two names one will be the name people will know you as, the other will be the representation of the real you. Your name as my son will be Miguel but the name of the real you will be Young Fury". With that said Contreras smiled and cradling the infant in his arms, walked into the aid station.

Out in space the group of Yautja hunters was celebrating their success. The 5 Yautja were proudly displaying their Pyode and Kiande Amedha trophies along with the retrieved corpse of the young blood to the elder and females of the clan. All of last month had been spent finding the corpse of the foolish young blood that was taken by the Oomans. None were happier however than Gro'Kesh. The fact that he had led the mission without losing any of the others made him very high in the eyes of the Elder and the Ancients who were coming to name him as an arbitrator in light of his constant success and vigilance on the hunt. For him no honor could have been greater. He hated the bad bloods with a single minded ferocity and wished to see them all dead. "Today dawns a new beginning for me" he thought encouragingly.

_First fan fic, I have another chapter ready but I need reviews, I don't care if your nice or not so if you want to say some thing just say it _


	2. 16 years later

16 years later:

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Year: 2018, July 12

The streets of upper class Chicago were lit up like a Christmas tree. That was a place of upscale neighborhoods; fancy cars each going to gatherings where the rich congregated to discuss money and politics. However in the west and south sides of Chicago drugs, murder, and money were the law of the streets. Down one of these alleys a man ran for his life from an unseen terror.

"Jesus Christ what the F& was that" Vick gasped as he tore his way down the alley and burst through a door that led into an abandoned factory building. He kept running what just happened through his mind. He had gone to meet a few of his "friends" for deal as an act of good faith he went unarmed. When he got there however he found all of them suspended and skinned a few of them had been armed and had fired at the intruder but most of them were helpless but none of that mattered right now. As he rounded a corner a massive force hit him sending him flying and crashing into to the wall. The creature paid no attention to his pleas of mercy while stepping back and impaling Vick with the blades on its wrist.

Back at the drug den Vick had fled from Gro'Kesh growled in frustration "that Pauk-de bad blood has evaded me for to long and he continues to commit acts of great dishonor". For nearly two weeks he had been on the trail of a bad blood know as Black Heart. Black Heart was a despicable bad blood who killed females for his amusement and the mere thought of him sent Gro'Kesh into a rage. His frustration had only increased when he tracked Black Heart to earth and found that he had been hunting and killing unarmed and very young Oomans. "When I find Black Heart I will tear out his gut" he thought to himself. He knew it wouldn't be easy though, black heart had killed an Elder and multiple females in their sleep which was the coward's way but he was an opponent to be reckoned with. From what Gro'Kesh had heard he had killed the last four arbitrators that had been sent after him in blade to blade combat. "He is a great warrior but I will find him and kill him none the less" he assured himself.

On the south side of town a pair of teenagers in coats despite the stifling heat walked at brisk pace up the ruined side walk. "Where the hell are we going Amigo" the muscular kid in the lead turned to regard the extraordinarily husky kid who was speaking to him. "I told you already Tank we going to meet Wildman and from there were going to the biggest gang fight in the city, two of the biggest gangs are gonna duke it out for control of the south side". "I don't think we should do this Miguel we could get killed" Tank said worriedly. "I prefer Amigo from you Tank and if you don't want to go then don't but I'm still meeting Wildman" Miguel said sounding confident. Miguel didn't expect to be involved but he and Tank were packing heat just incase. Tank had a sawn off shotgun under his coat while Miguel was packing a pair of 9mm pistols and a Ninjitsu sword concealed within a walking stick. Wildman was already on the corner waiting for them. "Yo man hurry up its already starting" he called. Speeding up to a brisk pace Miguel, Tank and Wildman hurried to the fight scene.

While his feet seemed to move on their own power Miguel was deep in his memories of how he came to be here, why he was so confident, and why he wasn't afraid to die. His father Jose had taught him how to shoot from the time he could hold up a gun and he had learned to shoot well but that wasn't the only thing his father had taught him. "Christ" he thought his father had taught him martial arts along with dodging and agility so hard he had practically mastered not only every unarmed stance but virtually every melee weapon by the time he was 12 and had even chosen his weapon of choice: the tonfa this had been the weapon he performed best with. Though he couldn't quite figure it out he had been stronger and hardier than his father by age 14.The time spent training with his father was among the happiest memories he could recall. Bending his head down to hide his emotions he sighed sadly. Those good times were not to last. His father had gone as a military advisor to the war In Iran. He had been killed two years ago when the unit he was with was ambushed and wiped out. How the team had been ambushed was was considered "classified" as they said it "conspiracy theorists of the world unite" he thought sarcastically.He had been so sad when he heard of his father's death for a reason other than simply that he was his father. "I am Young Fury" he thought to himself but he knew that only his father and himself knew his true name and to lose the only one who addressed him by made it seem like he had lost that name and his true self with it. From there he had sunk into depression and street life with Tank and Wildman as his only friends. By the time he was 15 he had killed his first man, some mugger that tried to rob him. As the trio rounded the corner they realized the fight had already commenced and watched transfixed but they didn't realize that two others were watching.

Hiding on top of a nearby building Gro'Kesh smiled to himself. "Tonight is the night I find that bad blood" he growled. He knew that the bad blood loved challenges and knew that this fight would be the perfect way to draw him out. "Come out, and show yourself Pauk-de" he had no sooner finished his sentence when blue plasma bolts began to rain down on the Oomans. "I think I'll let him kill the witnesses and then take his skull" as he thought this to himself he decided that was the best course of action and bunkered down to watch.

When the blue bolts began to rain down on the gang members Miguel and Tank dove behind a dumpster taking cover Wildman made to join them but a blue bolt struck him in the chest and blew it open. "Wildman" Tank yelled. The remaining gang members drew their weapons and began firing in multiple directions. From where he was Miguel could see some kind of outline drop down and began cutting down the gang members. Tank stepped out from cover, raised his shotgun and pulled the trigger. Boom! The shot hit the creature in shoulder and moments later an electric whine filled the air. The creature quickly removed and tossed it away just before it exploded in a blaze of blue light. The invisible creature roared in fury and threw something at Tank. "Ahhhhhhhh" Tank yelled as the strange disk cut him in half.

Overcome by fury Miguel stepped out and drew his pistols and fired them emptying both clips. One of his bullets struck the creature's wrist. A static filled the air as he realized that he had just hit the creature's cloaking device. When the cloak powered down he got his first good look at his attacker. "What the F$# is that" he thought to himself. The creature had to be at least 7' 5" and wore some kind of strange armor that didn't protect its whole body and an even stranger mask that hid its face. Still he didn't hesitate, in a scream of fury he charged the stranger executing a flying side kick which connected solidly with the creature's head driving it backwards. The creature was obviously stunned by the force of the blow but quickly recovered. As he kicked again the creature caught his leg and threw him full force down the alley. Miguel looked down the alley to see the creature extending a spear like staff. Miguel looked to his side and found that he had landed next to the walking stick that concealed his sword. Quickly standing up and drawing it from its scabbard he and the creature assumed fighting stances and prepared for a fight to the death.


	3. Confrontation and new ideas

Confrontation and new ideas

Miguel tensely gripped the handle of the sword as he stared down the alley at the huge creature each eyeing each other menacingly. The creature decided to act first. With a roar of rage it charged at him swinging the staff at his head. Moving with blurring speed Miguel brought the sword out and parried the blow. Metal met Metal with such force that sparks flew where the two weapons met. The creature spun attempting to smash his skull with the back end of the staff but he twisted his grip and used the sword to parry the other strike while at the same time he brought his knee full force into the creature's groin. It let out an enormous roar of pain and anger bringing its fist up in a punch that connected solidly with his breastbone. His breath went out in a great gasp as he flew down the alley knock over a set of garbage as he flew. Getting back on his feet he saw that the creature had gotten up and was coming at him again. It was advancing again with its spear at the ready. A flare of panic erupted in his chest when he realized he had lost his sword. Thinking quickly he remembered that he had a pair of combat knives concealed in his boots. Just then an idea occurred to him but what he was planning required pinpoint timing. Calming his breath he waited for the creature to charge him again, he would need to soften the creature up first.

"This one fights remarkably well for an Ooman" Gro'Kesh thought as he watched the battle. The Ooman fought well he had to admit but he knew that in the end black heart would have won. "Too bad such worthy prey wasted on that Pauk-de bad blood" he sighed but remembered that such prey falling to Black Heart would only make his killing of black heart that much sweater. "Finish him off Black Heart" he growled "so I can kill you".

"Come here you ugly son of a B#$" he thought fiercely to himself. As if reading his mind the creature charged thrusting his spear. Miguel rolled out of the way as the spear made contact with the brick wall behind him causing a number of the bricks to break. Acting quickly Miguel spun around and back kicked the beast between its shoulder blades sending it into the wall. Quickly turning around it attempted to sucker punch but he ducked it and sent an upper cut to its lower abdomen. It was like hitting steel but it had an effect, the creature stumbled backwards as he side kicked it as hard as he could in the face. ZZZZZZZZZ!! A sharp electric sound filled the air as he realized that he had cracked part of the mask and completely blew out one of the mask's eye sockets. Obviously fuming mad raised its hands pulling several hoses that held its mask in place, removing its mask it him straight in the eye.

"Damn your ugly" Miguel thought. When the creature had taken its masked off Miguel had been taken aback to see a face that resembled a demented crab with four mandibles and an inner mouth that resembled a human. His shock lasted only moments however as the creature made a fist, a pair of blades sprang out from the gauntlets on its wrist. "Come on charge" he thought to eagerly himself. With a roar the creature ran at him cocking its arm to deliver a deadly blow. This was what he was waiting for, in one swift motion he rolled under the swinging blades drawing the knives from his boots, completing his roll he ran as low to the ground as he could getting behind the creature and slashing both of its Achilles tendons. It let out a scream of agony and fell over backwards but managed to slash Miguel's side with the wrist blades. Miguel felt gut wrenching pain but ignored it, letting out an enormous roar of fury Miguel dug one of the knives deep into the creature's throat killing it instantly.

Gro'Kesh watched the Ooman with a mixture of anger and amazement. "How could an Ooman kill a bad blood as fierce as Black Heart" he thought to himself. "If I didn't see it I wouldn't have believed it" a voice from behind Gro'Kesh brought back his attention. It was Gi'Ha "I had no Idea you were here" Gro'Kesh said in amusement. "Just doing a little Ooman hunting, I must say it is hard enough to hunt Oomans and nearly impossible to hunt bad bloods that hide on their home worlds and the Kiande Amedha Chiva worlds. Gro'Kesh grimaced at this; many bad bloods had hidden on the Ooman home world and the other planets in which Yautja had brought Oomans to use as hosts for the Chiva. Because of the fact that the local populations on the Chiva worlds had built crude societies much more primitive than earth Oomans it was easy for a bad blood to lure an arbitrator into a trap, provoking their rage by slaughter the helpless and the young. "The Ancients have yet to find a solution to this problem" Gro'Kesh thought annoyed as he turned to regard Ooman still in the alley clutching its side. Almost out of the blue a strange idea occurred to him, a great revolution of an idea. "Gi'Ha would you assist me in carrying out the corpse and capturing that Ooman alive" Gi'Ha turned to regard his friend "I suppose it wouldn't hurt, grinning both Yautja descended silently into the alley.

"Damn" Miguel cursed "that hurt like a B&#". Clutching his side he slowly limped towards the fallen corpse. "I killed you real good" he muttered. His blood was dripping from his side. His blood color had always perplexed his father, it looked sort of yellowish red but his father didn't think twice about it, he had been a very quick healer, once fracturing a shin and having it mend 2 days later on it own. He could never really figure out why though. "Guess its time I left this party looks like its over". As he began to limp down he heard a sound behind him as he started to turn something he him in the back of the head and his world went black.

Gro'Kesh watched as the Ooman slumped to the ground knocked out by a blow from his comb stick. "Gro'Kesh do mind hurrying up its likely that both of us will half to carry this piece of C'jit" indicating the corpse of Black Heart. Taking out a length of black cord he quickly bound the Oomans hands and slung him over his shoulder tying the cord to his belt so that he had the use of both hands. Together he Gi'Ha managed to quickly make it back to Gro'Kesh's ship with both the corpse and the unconscious Ooman. "I'm going to return to my hunt I will see you again aboard the clan ship my friend" and with that Gi'Ha reactivated his cloak and left. Starting the engines the ship roared to life.

Back aboard the clan ship Gro'Kesh had delivered the Ooman to the infirmary while delivering the corpse to the elder and arbitrators. "Well done Gro'Kesh Black heart was a dangerous foe and that adds much to your honor but why have you brought an Ooman on board. Gro'Kesh turned to the elder "I did not kill Black Heart the Ooman did". "Impossible" the elder barked, "a mere Ooman could kill one such as Black Heart?" "I saw it myself otherwise I would have said the same thing" Gro'Kesh replied curtly. "Why I have brought him here is for a reason that only you and the arbitrators should hear". "Very well I will summon them". Pushing on a COM he proceeded to make an announcement. "All arbitrators please meet me in my personal meeting room at once". Even though it took a few minutes for them to arrive eventually all twelve arbitrators currently aboard the ship made it to the meeting. Once all were inside the door slid shut and locked. The elder taking his chair spoke loudly so that all of them could hear. Gro'Kesh is about to inform us about why he has brought the Ooman to our ship. All eyes turned to Gro'Kesh as he began to speak. "As you know it has been next to impossible to hunt the bad bloods on the Ooman home world and the Chiva planets because of the interference from the local Oomans, this is why many of the worst bad bloods have chosen to hide on these planets" growls of agreement emanated from the arbitrators. "As of yet not even the ancients have been able to effectively solve this problem" "so what are you suggesting Gro'Kesh?" the elder asked in an annoyed tone. "That Ooman that I brought aboard the ship was the one that killed Black Heart" he paused listening to the clicks of amazement. "I therefore propose that we deploy this human on Earth and the Chiva planets as an undercover agent who will help us track down and kill the bad bloods while being able to move freely amongst the populations". The elder turned his gaze downward contemplating this as hard as he could. "I will take it up with the Ancients, in the mean time check on this Ooman's recovery". "If you need any help convincing them use this recording I took of him fighting Black Heart" Gro'Kesh said tossing him the recording. Gro'Kesh stepped to the door giving the elder the gesture of respect as he walked out.

"What is the status of the Ooman?" Gro'Kesh barked as he walked through the door into the infirmary. Ji'Sho the aging medic turned to regard him. "The Ooman is healing at a very quick pace but he is still unconscious, my examination of him has revealed some very curious and bizarre irregularities as well" Ji'Sho said bluntly. "What irregularities?" Gro'Kesh replied. "Examinations I have run on his blood indicate that his blood is half Ooman and half Yautja". Gro'Kesh was stunned at this revelation but managed a reply. "What effects have this had on the Ooman" he said bewildered. "From what I can gather so far it has given him the strength, agility, and possibly the life expectancy of a Yautja but his appearance is entirely Ooman except for the unique color of his blood" Ji'Sho said in a matter of fact voice. "Paya must have sent him to me" he thought excitedly but straightening up he turned and said to Ji'Sho "do not share your findings with anyone except the elder or other Arbitrators and keep his existence a secret". Gro'Kesh wanted to make sure that the agent he had hoped for remained a secret.

"Gro'Kesh come meet me and the arbitrators immediately!" Gro'Kesh was woken harshly by the message from the elder and replied groggily "I'm on my way". As he reached the upper decks and entered the meeting room he could see the elder sitting and looking at him. As the door closed and locked behind him, the elder proceeded to speak. "I have just finished discussing your proposal and the Ancients agree with you, however they want more proof than just your recording" Gro'Kesh was about to reply when the elder spoke up again "They have decreed that before he is accepted as an agent he must complete the Kiande Amedha Chiva, you will personally train him in the use of our weapons, technology and hunting strategies for a few months before the Chiva, if he survives and brings back a skull of his own he will be blooded and trained in the ways of the arbitrators by you before being deployed to earth for his first assignment, is that understood Gro'Kesh" Gro'Kesh nodded his head in approval. "So it begins" he thought smugly to himself"


	4. Revelation

"God damn it what happened" Miguel was dazed as he began to become conscious again. The room had been becoming clearer for the past few minutes and he could now make most of it out. "Where the hell am I" he thought now growing very confused. His state of confusion was broken however when the door to the room slid open and another one of those creatures walked in. **"Get the hell away from me"** he yelled. He reached for his side only to figure out that his weapons and clothes were gone and all he had on was some kind of loincloth. The creature stared back at him and said in English "relax Ooman I will not hurt you but I must examine you for injury". Miguel didn't quite know what to make of this so he decided that it was best to figure out what was going on. "I think I'm fine thanks" he responded curtly "but who or what are you?" "My name is Ji'Sho and I am the chief medic for this clan of Yautja, Ooman". Miguel was a little perplexed by his answer. "What is a Yautja and what is an Ooman" he asked carefully. "I am a Yautja, and you are an Ooman, now I must examine you for injury, just as a precaution". Miguel weighed his options, "running would be foolish because I have no idea where I am, fighting would be foolish because there's probably more of them outside" so reluctantly he lay back down on the medical table. While checking the old scars on his chest the Yautja said quietly "I gave you my name Ooman, now what is yours". "My name is…" Miguel stopped and thought for a moment before finally saying "my name is Young Fury".

Gro'Kesh was in the training rooms sparring with another arbitrator when he heard the voice of Ji'Sho talking on the COM. "Gro'Kesh come to the infirmary, the Ooman has regained consciousness". Signaling for the other to stop he went to the com and replied "I'll be there shortly". Placing his comb-stick on his back he proceeded to make his way to the infirmary. "About time that Ooman awoke" he thought excitedly, now he could finally prepare the Ooman for the Chiva and perhaps gain a great new weapon in his vendetta against the bad bloods.

"There seems to be no sign of further injury or infection and your previous injuries have almost completely healed". Miguel looked at the Yautja, contemplating what to do next; finally he decided to ask the question that was nagging at the back of his mind. "Why am here" the Yautja looked back at him there was what seemed to be a hint of irritation behind his eyes. "I don't know but someone who does will soon be here" he replied. No sooner had he finished his sentence the door opened. Miguel gazed at the Yautja that had just entered, he was taller than the one he fought in the alley, about 7' 10'' and had a much darker complexion. The Yautja turned to regard him for a moment before saying in English, "come with me Ooman", "Will you tell me what's going on?" Miguel tried to ask but the Yautja just barked at him "come with me and everything will be explained". Thinking it best not to argue Miguel followed the huge Yautja out of the infirmary and down a set of hallways until they finally reached a door, keying it open the Yautja stepped inside, reluctantly Miguel followed him. Inside was a sleeping room simply furnished consisting of only a bed, a table with a few odd looking chairs and what looked like a shower. "You will sleep in this room while you are with us Ooman" the Yautja said turning to him. Miguel stared back and asked his question again "why am I here".

Gro'Kesh thought for a moment before replying, finally he decided that the hybrid should know what the plans for him. "Do you remember the Yautja that you killed back on Earth" the Ooman hybrid nodded its head. "He was a bad blood and not just any bad blood one of the fiercest and deadly bad bloods currently alive". The hybrid looked back at him with a confused expression "what is a bad blood" it asked. "You would call them criminals" he replied. Suddenly the Ooman hybrid let out a scream of rage and slammed its fist into wall leaving a dent. "**You mean** **a F#$# criminal killed my friends"** he yelled in voice that had an unmistakable blood lust. "If they were there, yes" Gro'Kesh replied, "so what do you want with me". Gro'Kesh lingered for a moment before continuing. "The fact that you managed to defeat a bad blood such as Black Heart, yes that was his name, has made it so you have proved yourself worthy enough to help us hunt them". "I and the other arbitrators seek to know if you agree and will help us hunt them". The Ooman hybrid looked up at him again looking confused. "Arbitrators?" it asked plainly, Gro'Kesh sighed "your kind would call us police, so what say you Ooman?"

Miguel thought hard, contemplating an answer to the Yautja's question. "I have no family, my friends were killed by that criminal Yautja, hell what have I got to lose". Slowly and deliberately he turned to regard the Yautja. "I'll do it" he said in a determined voice. "Excellent Ooman, rest for now and regain your strength, I will return later to begin your training". Miguel was exhausted after being in that infirmary for so long he welcomed the change, lying down on the bed Miguel was almost instantly drowned in sleep but not before one thought managed to cross his mind. "What the hell did I just manage to get myself into?"

After reporting to the elder on the Ooman's condition and the fact he was half Yautja (this brought him much amusement to see the elders stunned reaction), he proceeded to the armory where he started to have a conversation with the elderly Yautja Awu'asa maker. "I need a set of Awu'asa built for this Ooman" Gro'Kesh said as he held a hologram with the physical features and measurements of the Ooman-hybrid. "I didn't know an Ooman was onboard, why isn't he a trophy". The Awu'asa maker's reply irritated Gro'Kesh, "just tell me if you can make one or not!" The Awu'asa maker swelled indignantly "of course I can make it; it will have to be smaller than one of a normal Yautja however as this Ooman is only 6'3, I will also have to make a set of wrist blades and comp that will fit him too, the whole thing should only take a few days". "Then get to work" Gro'Kesh said as he turned to the door and walked out but stopped short "one more thing" the armor maker looked at him in acknowledgement "I don't want any Yautja other than the elder or the arbitrators to know of his existence yet so can keep your project and the Ooman a secret?" The armor maker looked at Gro'Kesh with a puzzled expression but nodded before saying "I will" and with that Gro'Kesh walked out.

At the infirmary Ji'Sho was researching the biology of Oomans and the biology of the Yautja, making comparisons to the Ooman hybrid. "I wonder how this Ooman came to be" he thought. The sound of the door opening brought him out of his thoughts as he looked to see who had entered, it was Gro'Kesh. "Gro'Kesh you don't seem hurt so why are you here or have you been fighting with some females" he asked mockingly. "Shut up Ji'Sho I came here to find out if you have discovered anything new about the Ooman hybrid". Ji'Sho looked at Gro'Kesh this time serious "what else could I tell you". Gro'Kesh thought for a moment before settling on a question. "How well does he react to the medicom". Ji'Sho checked his readouts before responding, "His reactions to the medicom are similar to a Yautja's, while the medicom will not heal him as effectively as it would a Yautja but it is fairly close, apart from that there is nothing new from what I can see". "Thank you" Gro'Kesh said gruffly before leaving. With a loud sigh Ji'Sho turned back to his "ungrateful piece of C'jit" he thought grumpily before turning back to his readouts.

Gro'Kesh decided on returning to his room for some rest but before he could get there the voice of the elder came on over his COM. "Gro'Kesh I need to see you for a moment". Grumpily Gro'Kesh made his way to the elders meeting room. When he got there he was surprised to find only the elder there. "Have made the necessary arrangements for the Ooman?" the elder asked in a casual voice. "The armor maker is working on his armor wrist blades and comp, Ji'Sho has also informed that he will react well to a medicom. "One more thing" the leader said. "What is that" replied Gro'Kesh "I hope you know what your doing" the elder said in a concerned voice. "So do I" Gro'Kesh replied. "I will rouse him shortly so that he ca begin his training then I will know if I chose correctly" Gro'Kesh finished. The elder looked at him and nodded in agreement before saying his last concern. "Where will you train him and keep it a secret?" Gro'Kesh could easily answer that question. "I will train him in the Arbitrators personal Kehrite". "Good, you have answered my questions Gro'Kesh you may go". Giving the elder the Yautja salute on his way out he made hi way up to his room. Trophies from many species decorated the walls and among these trophies were a number of Ooman skulls. "Odd how I have hunted Oomans and now I will train one to help me" he thought as he lay down and slowly went to sleep.

_Sorry if I kept anyone waiting but I have a difficult few days, I'm about to head off to Florida on Sunday for Thanksgiving brake but I might be able to squeeze in one more chapter before I go. So tell me what you think so far and don't worry I will finish this story._


	5. Training

Training

Miguel was roused from his sleep when the Yautja he was with prodded him awake. "I'm up, I'm up" he said sleepily. "Come with me" Miguel followed the Yautja to a room about the size of a small gym with a white square in the center. Weapons lined the walls and it couldn't have been more apparent that it was some kind of training room. "This is where I will train you for what you must do in the future". "You mean hunt bad bloods" Miguel replied. "Yes but first you must complete the Chiva or trial" the Yautja said distractedly. "What must I do for this trial" Miguel was again confused by the new details of what exactly he had to do. "For the trial you must hunt the Kiande Amedha, survive and take at least one of their skulls as a trophy" the Yautja looked at him with a very serious expression "You will train here with me and the other arbitrators for a few months until the Chiva". The Yautja went to one side of the square and tossed him what looked like a small pole. The Yautja drew one of its own and extended it. Looking over his own he found the device to extend the comb-stick; extending his comb-stick Miguel and the Yautja assumed fighting stances and prepared to spar.

Just as Miguel expected the Yautja made the first move, running straight at him with a horizontal swing. Miguel blocked the move by using his comb-stick to form an outside block, shifting his weight he brought the back end of his comb-stick up to hit the Yautja's head, but the Yautja sensing his move ducked the blow, spinning around and bringing down the comb-stick with a vertical strike. Miguel executed a high block holding the spear horizontally above his head. He caught the strike and twisted around it and sank his knee in the Yautja's stomach, the Yautja let out a roar of rage and punched him square in the chest with enough force to make him fly backwards. He managed to land on his feet however and managed to parry another thrust from the Yautja who was again charging at him, spinning around the Yautja he managed to spin the back end at the Yautja's head. This time it impacted solidly with the back of its head. Roaring in fury the Yautja managed to land a solid kick to his breastbone, Miguel was completely winded by the blow and before he could recover the Yautja was holding the comb-stick to his neck. "You skills are impressive Ooman, but you will need some training before you go on the Chiva". Miguel stood up and retracted his comb-stick "want to go another round?" he said in a highly determined voice. "If you want to Ooman" the Yautja said. "You don't have to call me Ooman" Miguel replied fiercely "I have a name you know". "So what is your name Ooman?" Miguel thought for a moment but decided on his true name "Young fury" he said "what's yours?" the Yautja looked at him for a moment before replying, "My name is Gro'Kesh".

Gro'Kesh was impressed with the level of skill Young Fury was displaying even if it had a few faults. "By the time of his Chiva I bet I can make him 4 times as strong and skillful" he thought to himself. The Pyode Amedha were renowned by Yautja blooded and warriors for their ability to learn very quickly. What an Ooman could learn in a few months rivaled what a Yautja could in 5 to 10 years and Young Fury appeared to learn at an Ooman pace. Gro'Kesh managed to beat him a few more times but Young Fury was improving already and presenting more and more of a challenge with each new match. Finally Gro'Kesh called for the sparring to cease and both of them returned to their rooms. "This hybrid, Young Fury is more skillful than I originally expected" Gro'Kesh thought to himself before lying down on his bed and going to sleep.

Miguel was awakened again a short time later by Gro'Kesh's prodding, this time however he eagerly got up and proceeded to follow Gro'Kesh to the Kehrite. Upon reaching it Gro'Kesh turned to him, "This time we will spar with the weapons of our choice, the weapons rack is over there". Miguel went over to the rack and looked over the assorted training weapons. Numerous knives, comb-sticks, glaives and other weapons were hung on the rack. Finally Miguel spotted a weapon that made his eyes light up, it looked like the combination of a tonfa and a blade, the tonfa was his weapon of choice and the one he could handle best. Taking a pair of them off the rack he was surprised at how light they were and began to spin them frontward and backward as he looked over at Gro'Kesh. The Yautja had chosen a glaive and his wrist blades for the fight. "A pair of mauls Young Fury, an unusual choice, no unblooded and few Young bloods know how to even use one of them much less two" Gro'Kesh's voice came out in a mocking tone and it made Miguel want to shut him up "Quite talking and start fighting" he said in a rather annoyed voice. The blades on the glaive and mauls had been dulled so much they were dead blades used only for training but the wrist blades were alive and sharp. The two of them went to opposite sides of the training square and commenced their match.

Miguel brought up the maul in his left hand and blocked as Gro'Kesh charged at him with diagonal strike. At the same moment Miguel managed to block the strike he swung the second maul in his right hand out and towards Gro'Kesh who barely managed to get his wrist blades out to block. Miguel pushed off Gro'Kesh chest with his foot and broke the weapon lock. Retreating a short distance Miguel suddenly changed direction and charged at Gro'Kesh, thinking quickly he twisted the maul in his right and so that the long end extended and brought it down in a diagonal slash. Gro'Kesh blocked it but Miguel used the force of the blow to push the block aside while bringing the maul in his left hand up in a regular tonfa grip, he executed a sort of tornado like maneuver making it so that the left maul was positioned to Gro'Kesh's throat. Gro'Kesh looked stunned but gave a gesture of defeat. "I have never seen any Yautja handle mauls that well" he said half admiringly. Miguel smiled and replied proudly "back on earth a weapon similar to this called a tonfa was my best and favorite melee weapon". "Obviously you do not need any training on the maul from me" Gro'Kesh said amused, "So we should continue your practice with the comb-stick". Miguel sighed but extended the comb-stick and walked to practice square again "its going to be a short few months" he thought to himself dully.

A month passed and Miguel continued to spar with the spear, glaive, and occasionally the mauls, this was just to keep him sharp as he consistently beat Gro'Kesh when using them, much to the amusement of the other arbitrators, their amusement was short lived however as he beat the one after the other when using the mauls. The reason for this was simple, none of them had ever seen a fighting style that incorporated the use of two mauls and weren't sure how to defend against it. However he eventually managed to have a draw when using the comb-stick then the glaive. Following this event Gro'Kesh decided to move on to teaching him the use of distance weapons and wrist blades.

Gro'Kesh had decided after Young Fury mastered the melee weapons he would teach him how to use the plasma caster and shuriken. Young Fury easily went through the wrist blade lesson in a about week, the plasma caster had also been easy to teach because the targeting system would do most of the work for him and he quickly learned how to operate the aiming and firing system, it was the same story with the spear and net guns as well. There was only one major lesson left to teach and that was how to throw a shuriken. Gro'Kesh had Young Fury watch as he demonstrated the first time, completely severing off the top half of the target dummy. "The shuriken is balanced so that the throwing end will be toward the users hand instead of the blades" he said "to catch them correctly you must learn how to time your catch correctly, now make your first attempt". Miguel threw the shuriken, it severed its target but Miguel had to duck as it came back as it would have chopped his fingers off if he had attempted to catch it. "Try again" Gro'Kesh barked. It took a few attempts but Miguel finally caught it and began doing consistently after a couple of hours. Gro'Kesh smiled inwardly "this is proving better than even my highest expectations could hope for" he thought.

After about 3 more months of consistent practice with all of the weapons he had learned how to use Miguel felt that he could defeat any Yautja in his sleep, he could even throw 2 shurikens one after the other or at the same time and still catch them. There had been other lessons as well, Gro'Kesh had taken him down to a jungle planet where the clan was having a large scale hunt of various prey in a separate ship so no other Yautja would discover him. From this trip Gro'Kesh taught him how to use the Yautja wrist computer and camouflage, also Gro'Kesh taught him to improve his stalking skills, something he would need when hunting the bad bloods later on. From this came Miguel's first trophy, a strange alligator like animal except much larger and with more teeth, Gro'Kesh had then showed him how to use the ritual knife to cleanly decapitate it and clean it. After 2 weeks spent doing this Miguel felt he could probably do it on his own later. When they returned to the clan ship Miguel mounted the trophy with pride. "I'm glad I decided to do this" he thought "sure beats living in the Chicago projects".

Miguel was yet again awakened by Gro'Kesh who beckoned for him to follow. Thinking they were going to the Kehrite again Miguel followed him. However Gro'Kesh brought him down a hallway he hadn't been before. Opening a door near the end of the hall he walked inside with Miguel right behind him. Inside stood an old predator who seemed very pleased to see them, finally Gro'Kesh turned to regard him. "Your Chiva will begin tomorrow at dusk on the planet we are in orbit over; you are here to receive the Awu'asa or armor that you will wear on the Chiva and any other time it is necessary". Miguel nodded and headed over to the old armor maker who presented him with his armor, it was space black and covered his chest but left his stomach exposed with only the fishnet body suit covering it. Next the old Yautja presented him with a mask, it was simplistic in design and also space black to match the armor. Miguel put on the mask and was instantly amazed; it moved so well and felt so natural it might as well have been his own face. Gro'Kesh spoke up again, "built into that mask is a translator so you will be able so speak and understand the Yautja language without difficulty, this will help you communicate with the four other unblooded who will also be on the Chiva". Miguel decided to test out the translator "thank you" he said, to his amazement his statement came out in a series of clicks and growls. "Your welcome" Gro'Kesh replied in Yautja. Also the mask has our vision modes built into it, try them out". Miguel pressed a series of keys on the wrist computer he had just received and was amazed as he toggled between his normal vision and the three sight modes. One was blue, one red, and one green, the old Yautja spoke this time "the blue vision is thermal vision it allows us to see Oomans and other creatures with heat signatures, the red is a neural vision, you will use this later to scan the thoughts Yautja you may encounter to ensure that they are hostel bad bloods and not a hunter on the hunt, lastly the green vision mode will allow you to see the Kiande Amedha, you must remember this during the Chiva because the Kiande Amedha will not appear on the thermal vision, and it should work better than your normal vision while in the dark" Miguel nodded his head in acknowledgement. Gathering up his armor he and Gro'Kesh returned to his room where he hung the armor on a rack, lay down on the bed and went to sleep. Gro'Kesh observed the sleeping hybrid and whispered "rest Young Fury, for the trial lies ahead of you and will arrive soon", with that he turned and left, leaving Miguel to sleep.


	6. The Chiva

The Chiva

Miguel awoke with a start; he had been feeling slightly anxious about this night when he would descend down to the planet to collect the skull of a Kiande Amedha and become the agent of the arbitrators. Yawning he gazed around his room, his eyes fixed on his mask and armor and he sighed. "It's going to be one of those days" he thought sarcastically. He grimaced at the fact he was no longer a secret, Gro'Kesh had been forced to tell the rest of the clan because they would be watching the Chiva, what Gro'Kesh hadn't mentioned was the role he would play as their agent, to them he was just an Ooman who had proved himself worthy enough to be a hunter and Miguel was thankful for that. He could however now leave the arbitrator area of the ship and roam freely, even though he received stares and insults behind his back. These insults were stopped when he had beaten a warrior Yautja in sparring very quickly and effectively with the combi-stick, the disrespect and opposition had grown far quieter since then. Hearing the door hiss open he looked to see Gro'Kesh entering. "It's time" he said in a flat, emotionless tone. Miguel nodded in acknowledgement, swiftly walking over and donned his armor, mask, wrist blades, and wrist computer. "Come, you must choose the weapons you will take on the Chiva" he turned and walked out with Miguel right behind him.

After walking for a few minutes Miguel and Gro'Kesh walked into what looked like an armory, row after row of every Yautja weapon imaginable. Miguel selected his weapons carefully, he took a pair of mauls that would serve as his melee weapons, as they were his best he decided that he would not use them unless it was an emergency, so he also selected a combi-stick and a pair of shurikens. The wrist blades and plasma caster were already attached to him so he did not have to worry about that. After placing one of the shurikens on each of his thighs, he mounted the mauls across his back in an X shape and mounted the combi-stick on the small of his back. Giving Gro'Kesh the sign that he was ready Gro'Kesh presented him with a knife meant for taking the skull off of the Kiande Amedha, thanking him for his gift Miguel strapped the knife to his lower leg and proceeded to follow Gro'Kesh to the central meeting chamber where the elder and the rest of the clan would see them off. It didn't take long before they arrived, Miguel was in awe; it was almost the size of a football field and packed to the brim with Yautja. Seated in the center of a highly risen chair sat the elder, before him were four other Yautja who Miguel fell into step beside. The elder regarded them before speaking loud so that all could here him. "Unbloodeds Stone Fist, Swift Spear, Long Blade, Blunt Knife, and Young Fury, you all are about to embark on our right of passage, if you succeed in taking the skull of a hard meat and make it out alive you will be blooded by the clan, if you fail you die, now go!" Gro'Kesh lead the 5 of them to the bay where the pods would launch and send them to the Kiande Amedha hive, the number of Kiande Amedha in the hive was estimated to be around only 10 or 20, a very small number in comparison to other hives as Gro'Kesh had explained rather vigorously. Miguel surveyed the pod he take to the planet, It was large for him so he didn't feel confined when he climbed in. His whole body jerked as the pod shot from the ship and down towards the planet surface.

As Miguel stepped from the pod he surveyed where they had landed, all the pods had landed within 60 yards of each other and the group came together in the center checking their weapons. The Yautja known as stone fist turned to address the group. "The hive seems to be based in an Ooman structure close by, so let's go and don't get in my way Ooman" Miguel tensed but remained calm. He hadn't met Stone Fist before now but from what he had heard he took charge of most situations he was involved with, but he was also arrogant and foolhardy, something Miguel deeply despised about him. Before anything else could be said however the 5 of them were making their way through the jungle at a very fast pace, stopping only when reaching the clearing where the hive was located. Miguel immediately recognized it as a type of military base and thought about how to enter it without drawing the fury of the hive down on him. Switching on his wrist computer he was able to see a tactical hologram of the base, it was mostly under ground with a small entrance check point on the surface. "Twenty bucks says that if we step through the main entrance they'll know we're there" he thought to himself as he looked back at his wrist computer. Just then he spotted an auxiliary entrance, a small freight elevator not to far away. "Maybe we should try going in some other way" Miguel said, the rest of the group seemed willing to listen but stoned fist scoffed at him, "I say what we do, Ooman and I say we go through that entrance". "Go through that entrance then" Miguel said in an angry retort. Scoffing Stone fist and the three others headed towards the main entrance, Miguel watched as they pried the doors open and proceeded inside. "It's your funeral" Miguel thought as he made his way to the freight elevator.

Upon arriving at the elevator he saw that what ever had made this place its home had destroyed it but that only made it easier for Miguel to slip in unnoticed. Grabbing one of the loose elevator cables he managed to repel until he arrived at an open door to one of the base's levels swinging over he landed inside the room and saw that it was some kind of med lab. Switching his vision mode to green he proceeded to search the med lab which was covered in hard meat secretions but completely devoid of hard meat life. "Damn, this must have been one hell of a bloodbath" he thought as he saw the remains of the carnage, human blood and acid burns covered the ground. Making his way out of the med lab he made his way down a long narrow hall way but still couldn't find any hard meats "wonder if I should have just stuck with the group" he thought but just then he heard and ear piercing shriek that cut him off. He turned suddenly as an alien drone let loose a shriek of surprise and lunged at him, Miguel aimed his plasma caster and fired, the blue bolt blew the drone to pieces. Miguel grimaced "so much for trying to take that skull" he thought but continued until reaching a flight of emergency access stairs where he made his way down to the lower levels. Accessing his wrist computer again he spotted a large central room on what looked like the sub basement level "If there are any of those f#$ things left that's where they'd be" he thought. He was about to make his way down their when an alien warrior shrieking with rage lunged at him from the side, Miguel acted quickly as he threw his shuriken at the charging beast, the shuriken flew true and sawed the alien in half. He walked toward the still squirming upper half of he warrior, extending his combi-stick as he went, and with one fluent motion, impaled the squirming upper torso. Taking out his ritual knife Miguel proceeded to cut the head off the remnants of the corpse, mounting the head onto the back of his body armor Miguel began to leave when a figure shot out at him.

Miguel raised his combi-stick but relaxed when he saw that it was Stone Fist but was dismayed by his appearance was unnerving. Stone Fist looked as if he had just gotten the s&# kicked out of him, he was bruised, bleeding and missing his weapons but seemed to be okay. "What happened" Miguel asked in a hurried voice "I couldn't contact you at all". "We were ambushed, then swarmed, they killed Long Blade and Blunt Knife in the fight but they dragged Swift Spear off". Miguel contemplated this in his mind before saying "Why does it matter?" "If an abomination hard meat has been made from us we are bound by honor to destroy it". Miguel contemplated this before saying "Okay, I think I know where it might be", together the two of them made it to the large sub basement room without interference, but when they stepped inside both of them froze.

Several drones scurried around a gigantic Kiande Amedha; "The Queen" Stone Fist said more to himself than Young Fury. Just then the predalien abomination leaped at them snarling in rage, Stone Fist's wrist blades sprang out as he leapt at the abomination, the two of them met in mid air and slammed into each other sending them landed in a lethal sprawl, the abomination swung its tail around aiming for Stone Fist's but he managed to get up his wrist blades in time to sever its tail, the abomination screamed in fury and knocked him to the ground, "I have failed" were his last thoughts before the abominations extra jaws slammed into his forehead killing him instantly.

Miguel had been prepping the plasma explosive he was carrying when he looked over and saw Stone Fist dead on the ground, with a scream of rage he lunged at the abomination extending his combi-stick as he went. The abomination was so taken aback by his new attacker it couldn't react in time; Miguel impaled it with his combi-stick and quickly brought out his shuriken and severed its head from his neck. A huge scream filled the air and he looked up to see the Queen trying to get loose from the womb that held her to the ceiling. "Time to go" Miguel screamed to himself, collecting the skull of the predalien, he activated the bomb and high tailed it down a narrow hallway to an express elevator near the stair well. Reaching it he could see that it was merely a freight elevator platform, "Damn it, this won't get me up fast enough" he thought in complete frustration. Just then he noticed a number of compressed air tanks designed for a quick exit. He walked over to them and cut off the seal on the tanks. "S#" he thought as the force propelled him up like a bullet, as he continued moving up with blurring speed he realized that it would crush him against the top of the shaft at that speed. Thinking quickly he aimed his plasma caster straight up at the ceiling that was coming at him fast. "This had better work" he said to himself as he fired the plasma caster. The bolt blew the ceiling clean off and caused the platform to eject out of the shaft, it crashed back to the ground outside the main entrance. Miguel dived behind a ridge near by as the main entrance blew up. "Yes!" he thought as he watched explosion. Miguel sat watching the flames, it was a sweet victory hampered only by the fact that one of the flying debris chunks hit his plasma caster and rendered it useless. Miguel didn't think too much of it as his hunt was over, he had survived the skull of the alien warrior and predalien abomination were now his. He was about to head back to his pod to beacon the ship when an scream so loud he thought is eardrums would bleed, looking around he saw the queen climbing out of the crater that used to be her hive. "You've got be f#$ kidding" he thought as the queen let out a second scream of rage, activating both his shurikens he turned to face the queen. **"You want a piece of me you ugly b$#$? Come and get it!"** he yelled in a fierce voice.

_I'm back from vacation!!! This chapter was actually finished last wee but the document manager was having problems, but thats the past, so please tell me what you think_


	7. Present and future conflict

Miguel gazed at the hulking black monster that was the Kiande Amedha queen as it hesitated on whether or not to attack him. "Guess this one's going to need a little incentive to do something stupid" he thought, "Happy to oblige".

Tossing the two shurikens out in opposite directions, he watched hoping this would cause the queen to attack. His plan worked all to well; the shurikens arced inwards making two long gashes one above the other on the queens body. The queen squealed in pain and rage, it promptly charged at Miguel full force second jaw bared and tail whipping behind it.

Miguel remained calm as he placed his shurikens back on his thy and drew his mauls. "That's right come over here so I can kill you" Miguel thought as the queen came closer at incredible speed. The queen was within feet of Miguel when at the last minute he rolled out of the way causing the queen to crash into an enormous tree, both the tree and queen crashed with such force that it shook the ground. **"Come on your pathetic!"** he yelled at the queen. The queen made no indication at whether it understood him or not but its tail came up so fast Miguel couldn't dodge in time.

Miguel felt the wind knocked out of him as he flew backwards and was brought up short by the base of a tree. "God Damn it that hurt" he coughed as he rolled over onto his back. Suddenly he saw the knife like tail of the queen coming down ready to strike a lethal blow. Thinking quickly he dropped the maul in his right hand and tossed a shuriken straight up "come on" he thought. His shuriken flew true and severed off the end of the queen's tail. The queen howled in agony and recoiled "yes!" Miguel thought wildly as he retrieved the maul he had dropped and retreated a few yards.

**"Time for round two!"** he yelled as the queen recovered from the blow that had been dealt to it. Placing his mauls on his back he extended his combi-stick and waited for the queen to charge again. He wouldn't have to wait long as the queen screamed a roar of utter fury and charged again. Using the combi-stick as a javelin he threw it with all his strength, the combi-stick hit the queen in the neck and sank at least half way down. "That should slow her down" he thought before the queen swiped across her neck with her arm and broke the combi-stick in half. "Guess not" he thought in frustration "what does it take kill this b#$?" Suddenly an idea occurred to him but it would be both extremely dangerous and extremely stupid. "Guess danger and stupidity are my middle names" he thought sarcastically as he once again drew his mauls.

Gro'Kesh had surveyed the Chiva and the ensuing battle with the queen that Miguel was currently fighting as turned to regard the elder that stood beside him. "The Ooman's skills are impressive, pity he will not survive". "What do you mean he will not survive?" Gro'Kesh replied in an angry retort. "few hunters have ever been able to kill a queen on their Chiva when they had a full group much less alone, and if the group did manage to kill a queen most of the group was killed". Gro'Kesh inwardly scowled; it was true though, no Yautja on their Chiva had ever been able to kill a queen without almost their entire group dying as well and no Yautja had ever been able to kill a queen by themselves. "Come on Young Fury prove all those who doubt you wrong, you can do it I know you can" he thought as he turned back to watch Young Fury and the Queen face off yet again. "Elder were receiving a message from the home world for you". The elder nodded and walked to his personal quarters; sitting in front of the viewing screen he accepted the message. The elder was surprised to find that the ones on the other end of the screen was the council of the ancients themselves.

Miguel was sure that the hit the queen had delivered earlier had at least cracked some of his ribs but he couldn't think about that now. "Come on kill me!" he yelled at the queen, the queen continued to growl at him menacingly but didn't move. "Fine I'll come to you then" he yelled angrily.

Placing one maul on his back he charged, the queen seemed slightly taken aback but lowered its head to meet him with its second jaw. "**Damn!** got to make her expose her legs" he thought as he continued his charge, as the queen bent down to deliver her lethal bite Miguel tossed one of his shurikens at the under side of the queens neck. The shuriken didn't cut extremely deeply as it only grazed the underside of her neck but it was enough to make her rear back in pain and that was all Miguel needed. Rolling under her giant legs he whipped the second maul off his back and performed the same tornado maneuver he had used to defeat Gro'Kesh, the mauls cleanly severed off both of the queen's legs right above both feet.

Miguel dived to side as the queen crashed to the earth with such force it shook the ground again. The queen screeched in agony and thrashed wildly on its back. Miguel seized his opportunity and leaped onto the queen, she gave a glass shattering shriek as she thrashed around trying to swat him off. Miguel couldn't believe it but somehow he had managed to get to the queens throat despite the slashing and biting attempts. "Got you" he thought as he spotted the hole that the combi-stick had made in her throat. So swiftly the queen could not buck away Miguel plunged both of his mauls into the hole in her throat a ripped them outward in opposite directions, blood flew off the mauls and burned through some of the foliage as the queens head came off.

"Damn that was tough" he thought as he fingered the deep cuts and bruises on his sides and legs. He looked down at the mauls; they had been completely melted from being plunged into the queen. "So much for these" he thought darkly, but as he eyed the skull of the queen he quickly forgot about the destroyed mauls. Walking over to the skull he picked it up, holding it over his head he let out a roar of triumph so similar to a Yautja it made him feel slightly uneasy. Suddenly a static sound of crackling electricity filled the air. Miguel turned to see the giant clanship hovering only meters away. "Took you long enough" he thought cheerily as went to meet the group of predators that was descending the ramp to meet him.

"Will this hybrid ever cease to amaze me?" Gro'Kesh thought amazedly. Gro'Kesh, the elder and the whole clan had been stunned when Young Fury had managed to kill not only the queen but also an abomination and a warrior by himself. "Pity I will not be able to blood him" came a voice from his right. Gro'Kesh turned and stared angrily at the elder and practically roared in fury "What do mean?", "The ancients were also watching his Chiva and I have received a message from them that they seek to blood him personally, with the blood of the dead queen". Gro'Kesh was taken aback; no Yautja had ever been blooded by the ancients themselves. "Are we returning to the homeworld then?" Gro'Kesh asked feeling bitter that Young Fury would not be marked by his clan.

"Yes, take the severed arm of the queen and preserve it for Young Fury's blooding" the elder order in a tone that suggested that he was also angry that Young Fury would not be blooded by the clan. Suddenly another idea hit Gro'Kesh and he approached the elder excitedly. "Elder what if we put the mark of our clan on his back" the elder turned and stared at Gro'Kesh "what did you say?" came the elder's startled reply, "if we blooded him there not only would it conceal his mark from the ancients but also the bad bloods when he hunts them". The elder thought this over for a moment before he finally decided that it would be worth the risk. "Very well Gro'Kesh, you will be the one to blood him". Gro'Kesh was taken aback but nodded in agreement.

Miguel walked between the assembled ranks of predators and made his way up the ramp where he was met by Gro'Kesh who greeted him with enthusiasm he didn't think the Yautja could posses. "You impress me again with your accomplishments Young Fury but you must now be tired, let me escort you back to your quarters". Miguel accepted his offer without needing much convincing. The Chiva had robbed him of much of his strength and he was looking forward to getting some rest.

When they reached his quarters Miguel quickly proceeded inside and began shedding his armor. The chest plate had several long gashes from when the hard meat's claws had slashed him and a few minor acid burns from the queen were also present but apart from that, it seemed to be in good order. Miguel turned and realized that Gro'Kesh had not yet left, Miguel was very puzzled by this. "Is there something else you need Gro'Kesh" he asked stifling a yawn. "Yes" came Gro'Kesh's reply. You must be blooded as proof that you have completed the Chiva". "How does this process work" Miguel asked. "Just turn your back to me" Gro'Kesh said pulling out something that Miguel recognized as one of the queen's severed limbs. Miguel turned with his back exposed to Gro'Kesh and braced himself. He felt a searing burn on part of his back but he stole himself to show no reaction. When Gro'Kesh had finished Miguel turned to face him.

"Where do I go from here" Miguel asked in a voice that suggested he was about to pass out from exhaustion. "We are now headed to the homeworld where you will be blooded again by the ancients themselves" came Gro'Kesh's the response. "Why would they want to do that if you've already done this?" Miguel asked suspiciously. "The ancients do not know about the clan mark and I would advise you not to mention it to them either". "Anything else" Miguel asked with a yawn as desired for sleep desperately "Yes" came Gro'Kesh's reply as he tossed Miguel what looked like a pendent on a neck cord, Miguel caught with one hand as Gro'kesh again spoke up "that pendant belonged to Black Heart, it was given to him by his sire and remained what he considered as his good luck charm even after he became a bad blood, since you killed him it falls to you, wear it with pride". Miguel nodded to show that he understood, going to over to the bed he lay down and was immediately drowned in sleep. Gro'Kesh quietly turned and left the room. "Rest Young Fury, the ancients await your arrival"

Far away, back on earth the body of an arbitrator slumped to the ground, killed by a spear that had pierced his back. As the mangled corpse oozed neon green blood, three bad blood predators disengaged their cloaks. Checking the vital signs of the fallen arbitrator one of the bad bloods turned to face the leader of the group. "This one is dead brother". The leader gave a growl of satisfaction as the third bad blood spoke up. "The killing of this arbitrator is sure to bring their fury down on us, are you sure this will bring that particular Yautja to us" he said in a nervous tone. "I don't care Fo'Sun you coward" the leader said in a darkening tone "I will not rest until I have the skull of the arbitrator that killed our brother Black Heart…… mounted on my trophy wall".

_I finally got this chapter posted depite the continuing errors of the document manager document manager_, _but here it is and I hope that that some feedback could be possible as it helps me improve._


	8. homeworld bound

Miguel awoke with a feeling that he still could have for many more hours. Turning his head he saw the skulls of the Queen, warrior, abomination, and Black Heart mounted on the wall. Yawning he got out of bed and donned his loincloth and after looking at it for a few moments hung Black Heart's pendent around his neck "maybe this will bring me good luck" he thought half seriously. His stomach grumbled loudly and he looked down at it with a tired expression "guess I should eat something". He had been to the galley several times before the Chiva, but he had disliked it because the rest of the clan had made a habit of whispering insults behind his back. As he made his way down to the galley he noticed a change in the way many of them looked at him. They seem to look at him with respect instead of contempt. "Guess killing a queen is big deal for them" he thought suppressing the urge to grin. He reached the galley and proceeded inside.

Miguel had taken a few pieces of raw meat to a table and began to devour it, ripping off chunks at time; he grimaced as he remembered those lost on the Chiva. "If I'd gone with them would they still be alive, or would I be dead?" He mentally shook as he remembered that if he dwelt on the past he would be consumed by it, what was done was done but he would never forget it. Miguel was distracted as he heard a voice and looked up to see that a young blood had seated himself across from him. "So this is the Ooman that killed the queen, I would have thought it impossible if I hadn't seen it myself". Miguel looked at the young Yautja, he was slightly shorter than Gro'Kesh and his skin had an orange tint to it. "Who are you?" Miguel replied in a curious voice. "They call me Broken Blade, what do they call you?" Miguel hesitated for a second but replied reluctantly "my name is Young Fury". "Glad to meet you Young Fury, hope to see you again on a hunt". Miguel gazed after him as he went to join a group of Yautja seated across the room. "Guess most of the younger ones don't like conversation" he thought darkly.

After a few more meat pieces Miguel decided that he should find Gro'Kesh and learn more about the predator home world. He was just passing the table where Broken Blade and his friends were sitting when the translator that had been hooked behind his ear picked up something broken blade said that made him stop dead in his tracks. The translator had been installed when received his mask, it was small and inserted behind his ear so no one would notice (Gro'Kesh had forgotten to mention this to him even though he found out later) so he could now speak and understand Yautja even though it looked like he was unassisted in doing so. "This Ooman is much stronger and more capable than the others taken in by the clans; I wonder how he will fair on the hunt". Miguel was extremely taken aback but resumed walking; he decided it would be better to ask Gro'Kesh about this than Broken Blade's group.

Back on Earth the hulking Yautja flanked by his two brothers stood in the alley where Black Heart had been killed. Although the arbitrator that had killed him had covered his tracks and made it look like there hadn't been a fight there, he knew that Black Heart had met the black warrior in this alley. He scowled as looked down the alley before the shortest one called Fo'Sun spoke up in a nervous tone, "I have learned who the last arbitrator assigned to track down Black Heart is". "Who?" the leader replied in a tone that contained pure malice and madness. "He goes by the name Gro'Kesh but he is not on the planet currently" came the voice of the third Yautja. "How did you figure this out?" the leader said in a cold, emotionless voice. "The wrist computer on the dead arbitrator had a record of which arbitrators were hunting which bad bloods" Fo'Sun said. The leader smiled inwardly, "I'm sure he will come looking for us and when he does, we'll be ready". The three bad bloods activated their cloak and left the alley. "I must find the seal of our sire" he thought furiously to himself. Black Heart had been the previous leader of their group and therefore carried their seal, but he knew it would be on the arbitrator that had killed him and he would repossess it by any and all means.

Gi'Ha watched the three bad bloods leaving the alley, he had heard their conversation and was gripped with fear over the fact that they were after Gro'Kesh. "C'jit, I've got to warn Gro'Kesh" he said to himself as he made his way back to his ship. As he delved into the abandoned sewer system he activated the ramp for the ship and stepped inside. The ship was small; it was designed for solo hunters like Gi'Ha. As he powered up the engines he grimaced, he knew he would have to make this ship go as fast as he could to reach the home world before Gro'Kesh's clan left it for Young Fury's first assignment and the rest of the clan hunts. The ship blasted off and a few minutes later was streaking across the blackness of space.

As Miguel made his way to the arbitrator meeting room he was deeply immersed in his thoughts, a million questions flooded his mind. "There are other humans here? Why hasn't Gro'Kesh mentioned this before? He continued asking himself these questions until he noticed that he had arrived at Gro'Kesh's quarters. He keyed the intercom to the room, "Gro'Kesh, you in there? I need to talk to you". The door opened and Gro'Kesh stood in the doorway. "What is it Young Fury?" he asked in a slightly annoyed tone. "I heard that the Yautja clans have taken in Oomans before, why didn't you tell me?" Gro'Kesh looked amused as he beckoned Miguel inside "let us discuss this in private". Miguel went in the room as the door closing behind him.

Gro'Kesh turned to face Young Fury, "you seek to know about the other Oomans taken in by the Yautja do you?" Miguel nodded to show that he did. "Where did you hear about them?" Gro'Kesh asked curiously. Young Fury told him of what he had over heard in the galley. "His instincts and attention to his surroundings are excellent as well" Gro'Kesh thought as he prepared answer Young Fury. "Some Yautja have and continue to take live Oomans instead of taking their skulls as trophies". Young Fury looked at him with a confused expression and asked in a prying tone "why?", "Because some Yautja find it amusing and a few like you, proved themselves by fighting alongside the Yautja". "Most of the Oomans in the Yautja clans are Eta; you would call them servants or slaves on you world and they do domestic duties for their Yautja masters". Young Fury looked at him wit an expression that suggested he was slightly revolted but he continued anyway "the select few others are hunters and hunt alongside the clan, almost all of the Oomans taken in by the clans are female".

Miguel looked at Gro'Kesh with a bemused expression "why are nearly all of them female?" Gro'Kesh gave Miguel the same expression before saying "when it comes to Oomans, a Yautja can take either gender's skull for pride, however most hunters tend to prize male skulls because they often prove to be the more violent and unpredictable of the sexes". "Some females however who have proven themselves to be strong warriors had their skulls taken as well".

Miguel was having some trouble taking this all in at once "I know why they take humans to be Eta but why hunters?" he asked Gro'Kesh. "The few that are hunters have fought alongside the Yautja and proved themselves to be strong warriors and hunters; these are always female because the Yautja they fought alongside developed an attraction to them and requested them to continue hunting with the clan."

Miguel thought about this for a moment before asking "do any of them do what I am going to do" he said with a hint of curiosity in his voice. "No" Gro'Kesh replied "you are the first to take part in this experiment which you have dubbed as becoming an agent of the arbitrators, you are also the only Ooman in this clan"; Gro'Kesh grinned suddenly as he looked at Miguel. "Why? Do you seek one as a mate?" Miguel grinned back at him before replying "not at the moment". As Miguel turned to leave Gro'Kesh again spoke. "You may run into a few on the home world, would you try to pick one then?" Miguel grinned again but said nothing as he left.

"So there are other humans among Yautja", Miguel mulled this thought over in head for sometime before deciding that he should probably do some training in the Kehrite to get his mind off of the concept. When he entered the Kehrite he found Broken Blade and his group of Young Bloods already there. "Jeez do these guys go everywhere together" Miguel thought just as Broken Blade noticed him for the first time since he'd entered.

"Young Fury, are you feeling up to match" Broken Blade said enthusiastically. Miguel grinned as he said in calm voice "sure, which weapon?" Broken Blade surveyed him before saying "the combi-stick, will that work?" Miguel nodded "if you want". Broken Blade tossed him a combi-stick as they took their positions in the sparring square as the rest of the group stood by the sides to watch. "Ready" Miguel said "Go!" Broken Blade replied with a roar.

Broken Blade roared as he charged Miguel swinging his combi-stick down over his head to execute a vertical blow. Miguel saw it coming and was ready. Lifting the combi-stick over his head in a horizontal high block he caught the blow. Moving quickly he shifted his feet and pivoted behind Broken Blade using the back end of the combi-stick to deliver a glancing blow to the back of Broken Blade's head. He could hear the staff impact Broken Blades head with a loud thump. Broken Blade fell forward form the force of the blow but quickly recovered and was back on his feet. Broken Blade leaped at Miguel in a spin motion trying to use the leap attack in conjunction with the spin to perform a nasty horizontal slash. As he came down however Miguel rolled under the blow and spun low while using his combi-stick to sweep the back of Broken Blade's legs. Broken Blade was unsteady on his landing and the leg sweep caused him to fly backwards and land on his back. Miguel wasted no time as he moved very swiftly over to Broken Blade and put his combi-stick to Broken Blade's throat. Broken Blade growled but gave the sign of defeat.

Miguel smiled inwardly to himself, while Broken Blade wasn't nearly as good as Gro'Kesh but he was still a good sparring partner. "Where did you learn to fight like that Young Fury" Broken Blade asked. Miguel looked at him with a prying eye while deciding how much to tell him, his training had come from his father, then from the street, he decided that his most recent trainer would probably be just fine. "I was taken in and trained by Gro'Kesh" Miguel answered. The group looked stunned, "you were taken in and trained by one of the arbitrators?" one of the Yautja group said in amazement. "Yes" Miguel replied. "You must have been very good already to impress him" Broken Blade said equally amazed. "What I did is between me and Gro'Kesh" Miguel said in a tone so absolute that it stunned the group even more. Broken Blade decided not to press the issue and Miguel was grateful for that. "We should be arriving at the home world shortly" Broken Blade said changing the subject. "In that case I'm going back to my quarters to prepare" Miguel said as he exited swiftly.

Broken Blade stared after Young Fury as he left. "Where in all the creation of Paya did Gro'Kesh find an Ooman like this one?" Broken Blade thought to himself as he turned back to his group and watched the next match start.

_I'm moving along with this story at a pretty good clip, I should be able to have the next chapter up inabout two days if the document manger dosn't give any trouble, but anyway, here is the 8th chapter,__ so please tell me what you think of it  
_


	9. Homeworld

Homeworld

Miguel could feel the ship vibrate as it docked. "Time to face the ancients" he thought slightly nervously. He had heard that the ancients had been interested to meet; he had also heard that they were the leaders of the entire Yautja race except for the bad bloods, this concept alone made him nervous. He looked over and spotted his armor, it had been almost completely repaired except for one feature; a large diagonal slash down the chest plate was still there. This slash had been given to him by the queen during their battle and Gro'Kesh had insisted that it be kept as a symbol of his triumph, so Miguel had decided to keep it. As he finished attaching his chest plate and donning his mask Gro'Kesh opened the door and stepped inside. "Time to go" he said in a monotonous voice. Miguel retrieved Black Heart's pendent before he followed Gro'Kesh to the docking bay of the ship and down the ramp.

"God damn, it's hot" he thought slightly disgruntled as he stepped onto the planet surface, but he soon forgot about that as he looked at the landscape. Massive pyramids of mainly Mayan and Aztec were spread out over what looked like hundreds of miles. "So this is a Yautja city?" he thought in amazement. "Follow me and stay close" Gro'Kesh said in a very serious tone. Gro'Kesh proceeded to lead Miguel up the central path to the ancient's temple, Miguel kept silent and dignified but secretly he was in awe. The central path had to be at lest 4 miles long and a quarter mile wide, it was filled with thousands if not tens of thousands of Yautja. As he and Gro'Kesh walked up the path Miguel took notice that he was drawing stares from a number of Yautja in the crowd, whispers started to reach his ears. Miguel ignored them however and just kept on following Gro'Kesh. Miguel also noticed a small number of humans in the crowd; from their cowed and submissive demeanor he could tell they were Eta Gro'Kesh had also been right every single one of them was female and they looked stunned to see him, dressed in full armor and walking next to Yautja arbitrator. Forcing himself to look away, he saw that he and Gro'Kesh had reached the entrance to the temple.

When they reached the temple gate Gro'Kesh turned to look at Young Fury, "the council of the ancients awaits your arrival inside". Young Fury turned and nodded at him, Gro'Kesh couldn't help but feel anxious but he knew Young Fury would be fine. As Young Fury entered the temple the gates shut behind him, Gro'Kesh walked around the temple until he was in its shadow. Spotting the secret door that led to the ancient's armory, he tapped out the code and was admitted inside. Gro'Kesh had personally contacted the ancients the moment the Chiva was over and requested that the ancients construct a set of weapons for Young Fury made from the legendary material. It had taken every ounce of convincing he had but they finally agreed in light of Young Fury's accomplishments and practical purpose. The ancients had said that it would be ready when he arrived so he was here to retrieve it. "The Void Steel will return to the hunt once more" he thought wildly.

Miguel walked was guided by one of the temple guards to the central council chambers. When they reached a set of massive doors, the guard prodded him inside. The room was so massive Miguel would have bet his life that you could have fit a mansion inside of it. In the center of the room was a huge table; seated around this table were what looked like close to thirty Yautja. "So these are the ancients" Miguel thought calmly. Just then one of the ancients stood up and called him over, "Ooman warrior, Young Fury, I am Zo'Chi, high ancient of the council and lord of all Yautja clans. Miguel gave him the Yautja sign of respect before approaching. "Ooman there is much to discuss" but before that you must be blooded, Miguel looked to see that the high ancient was holding the same queen limb that Gro'Kesh had used on his back, the high ancient however used it to burn a different mark into Miguel's left pectoral. "It made sense" Miguel thought, "that's where police have their badges". Taking a seat at the table Miguel looked at the high ancient knowing it was going to be a very, very long day.

"Let us start from the beginning Ooman" the high ancient said as Miguel looked at him to show he was listening. "Gro'Kesh seeks to deploy you on earth and other Ooman populated Chiva planets as a way of hunting the bad bloods in a way they never expected". "I know" Miguel said in a voice that sounded slightly bored. The high ancient ignored him however and continued speaking "we had our doubts but after watching your Chiva and your slaying of Black Heart, we believe Gro'Kesh's idea may be very effective with you as the agent". Miguel was still listening but his mind was starting to wander, forcing himself to continue listening he nodded in agreement to what the high ancient had said. "Also Gro'Kesh has reported something very strange about you; it would seem that your blood and DNA is half Yautja". Miguel's head jolted up as he looked at the high ancient, "guess I shouldn't be surprised, there certainly were signs, my strange colored blood for one thing" he thought sarcastically.

After several more hours of stories about Miguel's strange life story, details of his Chiva, battle with Black Heart and the ancient's plans for him the high ancient finally stood up and spoke. "I think that will be enough for now, you have definitely have earned what will be presented to you". "What does he mean by that?" Miguel thought excitedly. As if reading his mind the high ancient spoke again. Gro'Kesh is awaiting your arrival in our personal armory with your new tools of the hunt. An ancient summoned one of the temple guards and ordered them to lead Miguel to the armory. The guard complied and Miguel followed him.

Upon reaching the armory he saw Gro'Kesh and several elderly Yautja which were obviously the arms and Awu'asa makers. Gro'Kesh smiled as he beckoned him over to the table. Miguel let out small gasp as he saw the weapons arrayed out n the table. "Damn those look lethal" he thought jovially. A pair of mauls, a combi-stick, a pair of shurikens, a double edged glaive, and a set of wrist blades was laid out expertly; as for all of the weapons; both their blades and frames were as black as a void and on some part of the blade or frame of the weapon was a Yautja inscription, the inscription was blood and stuck out in the black weapons like a crimson star in space. "There extraordinary" Miguel said in amazement. Gro'Kesh smiled as he looked at Miguel again. Since it is likely that the bad bloods will have tech scanning capabilities having normal Yautja weaponry would make you stick out like a sore thumb". Miguel raised an eyebrow in confusion, Gro'Kesh grinned before continuing. "Because of this problem I have requested that the ancient's armorists make you a set of weapons made out of our rarest and strongest metal". Miguel still looked confused so Gro'Kesh decided it was better to keep talking. "The black metal is called Void Steel and where it is mined is the most closely guarded secret of the ancients, there is very little of this metal in the universe, less is in possession of the ancients and none of it is in the form of weapons as all is held in reserve because of its great worth, that is why you must guard these with your life. "Why is the metal that valuable apart from its rarity" Miguel asked inquisitively. "Void steel is many times stronger than ordinary Yautja steel, also there is the main reason I had these weapons made for you, Void Steel is undetectable by any Yautja tech scan so you can be scanned by any Yautja and no void steel weapon would be detected, it is also impervious to hard meat acid. Miguel cracked a grin "deception on a whole new level" he thought slyly. As Miguel looked at the inscription on each weapon he noticed that the symbol sequence was the same on each weapon. "What does it say?" Miguel asked. Gro'Kesh gazed knowingly at him before saying in a mystical tone "to all those who dishonor the Yautja, I am The Black Warrior".

As Gro'Kesh observed as Young Fury slid the wrist blades onto his right wrist and extended them, swelling with pride at the sight of the two jet black blades that looked as if they could cut through the toughest Yautja armor but he wasn't finished yet, he handed Miguel a wrist computer made from the same material as his weapons. "There is one more thing you will need Young Fury" he said in a tone of deep excitement.

Miguel looked up from admiring the wrist blades and computer to let Gro'Kesh know he was listening. "The Yautja mask vision modes are how we tell the difference between the bad bloods we are looking for and hunters on the hunt through use of the neural vision mode, also we use the tech vision mode to see how they are equipped and to see hard meat." Gro'Kesh stopped for a moment to make sure Miguel was listening when Miguel nodded at him to continue. "Obviously you wearing a Yautja mask will be a dead giveaway to not only the bad bloods but also the Oomans, so to correct this problem I had the technicians design this for you". Miguel looked at what Gro'Kesh was presenting him and almost laughed. "Sunglasses" Miguel said in a tone that suggested that he was about to fall over laughing. Gro'Kesh ignored him however and continued talking. "This Ooman device, sunglasses as you call them had been modified to allow you to see in the same Yautja vision modes that you would in a mask but without alerting the Oomans like a mask would, Try them" Gro'Kesh added sternly. Reaching up Miguel took of his mask and placing it on the table, picked up the sunglasses; they looked kind of like the sunglasses Neo wore in the Matrix. Placing the sunglasses on, he turned to Gro'Kesh "how do they work" he asked, "They will change modes based on the electrical impulse in your brain, so think of the mode you would like to see and it will change to that mode". Miguel shrugged but decided to give it a try, "thermal mode" he thought skeptically, his vision instantly changed from normal to a blue readout "hey cool" he said aloud. Gro'Kesh grinned before saying "the clan is almost finished here; we will soon be heading out". Miguel returned the grin he was looking forward to using these new weapons on some bad bloods. Mounting the rest of his weapons onto his armor, he proceeded to walk out with Gro'Kesh at his side.

As Miguel boarded the clan ship he looked out again at the vast Yautja city, He suppressed a sigh of relief, it had been a good few days in the Yautja city, Meeting with the ancients at the temple, receiving his weapon and then after locking the void steel weapons except for his wrist blades and computer, celebrated with Gro'Kesh by getting hammered on some kind of Yautja liquor. Gro'Kesh had left him for a time during thier stay to go see his mates, apparently he had several. "He's one horny bastard" Miguel reflected. However on the whole he was glad he was leaving, he could now do what he had come with the Yautja and trained to do, hunt the bad bloods. When he got to his room he took of the wrist blades and computer, setting them on the new weapon rack with the rest of his new weapons. Then he quickly stripped off his armor and hung it with his mask. "Time to show the bad bloods the new face of fear" he thought before a voice came out over his COM, he recognized the voice as belonging to Gro'Kesh. "Young Fury, meet with the rest of the arbitrators in the elders personal meeting room to be briefed on your first assignment" jumping up off his bed he proceeded to his door, it slid shut behind him and he locked it with a voice command, he then, hastening to the meeting room he lit up with excitement. "Time for my date with destiny" he thought happily.

_I've finished another one hope you like it, and I hope that I would be able to get some more reviews so I know what you think of this chapter, should be coming out with another one soon if I get some, anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!_


	10. First assignment

_Celbrating 1000 hits with this new chapter, hope you enjoy _

Miguel walked into the meeting room with a slight feeling of mixed apprehension and excitement. This would be his first mission, as he entered the meeting room he could see Gro'Kesh along with several other arbitrators and the elder were waiting for him. As he took his seat the elder stood up and started speaking, "Young Fury, you have passed all our tests so far, now we will send you on your first bad blood hunt". Miguel tensed with excitement but remained calm as he continued listening to the elder speak. "For your first assignment you will be sent to the abandoned Chiva planet of Ulnos, the surviving Oomans living on the planet have built a crude society but it is no where near the technological level of the Yautja or earth Oomans". Miguel raised his eyebrow in confusion at this statement, "the Yautja have caused human societies on other planets", the thought made him slightly uneasy but he'd get over it.

"Who's the Target?" Miguel asked with a definite blood lust which made every arbitrator look slightly more aware of their surroundings. "The target's name is Su'Kra" the elder replied simply "and what was his crime" Miguel continued "Su'Kra was a Yautja Eta, he was too sickly to complete his Chiva and because of this he was permanently made an Eta, he was fine at first with this but he got stronger as he reached his prime and requested to take the Chiva but was refused" the elder said coolly. "Let me guess that is where it all went bad didn't it" Miguel said in a calm voice. "Correct Young Fury, he became extremely angry when his Chiva request was refused and in his fury he killed an Unblooded in a challenge, stole his weapons and Awu'asa before hijacking a solo ship to become a lone wolf hunter". Miguel was mulling the facts over in his mind as he studied his opponent's temperament and battle tactics; he was building a behavioral profile, something he'd seen homicide investigators doing back in Chicago. "Okay he obviously has a temper issue, doesn't lack courage if he challenged an Unblooded to an open fight, but then again he challenged an Unblooded which probably means he lacks skill". Miguel was still thinking when the elder spoke again, distracting him. We have recently tracked Su'Kra to Ulnos and we suspect he has been hunting on the local human populace, Gro'Kesh has taught you how to recognize a Yautja kill?" Miguel nodded to affirm that Gro'Kesh had taught him. "Good, your orders are to track him down and eliminate him with extreme prejudice, bring back the skull and dispose of the corpse". Miguel glanced at Gro'Kesh before he replied "happy to, by the way what are my orders if a Yautja hunter targets me, or an armed human does the same?" the elder gave him a look of concern before replying "If you run into an honorable hunter when hunting the bad bloods you are to try to avoid conflict with them, if they start hunting you or attack you, eliminate them, if you run into armed Oomans you may adhere to the rules of the hunt, but your primary target will be the bad blood, so I do not advise killing an armed Ooman local unless they attack you or it will contribute to your goal of killing the bad blood, am I understood" Miguel looked the elder straight in the eye before replying "absolutely".

Gro'Kesh couldn't help but feel slightly nervous, it was after Young Fury's first mission and out of necessity Miguel would go it alone and he would have to go without his Awu'asa, the armor would be a dead give away to even the stupidest Ooman. In light of Young Fury's future bad blood hunts Gro'Kesh had installed a cloaking device into Young Fury's new wrist computer; he knew somehow Young Fury would use it well. Young Fury had gone to sleep after the meeting but Gro'Kesh stayed awake pondering about what was to come. "Can't let worry eat me alive" Gro'Kesh thought as he lay down on his bed and moments later was sound asleep.

Miguel woke with a sense of great excitement, they would be arriving at Ulnos shortly but he decided to test his new weapons in the Kehrite. Walking over to his weapons his eyes fell again on the blood red inscription. To him it was obvious that for the Yautja the black warrior was the bringer of death. Mounting his weapons on his body he proceeded too the Kehrite to find that no one was there. "Guess I'm going to have to wait" he thought disappointedly, "Guess I'll try the shurikens first then". Deploying one of the shurikens, he threw it at one of the many targets; it sliced through as cleanly as any other disk. "How am I going to test this thing's full potential he thought. Suddenly an idea came to him; walking over to the wall of training weapons he selected a combi-stick and made it stand upright by attaching it a floor stand. "Here goes nothing" Miguel thought as he again deployed the shuriken, the shuriken flew towards the combi-stick, sparks flew as the shuriken cut through it cleanly. Miguel cracked a grin a mile wide while he caught the shuriken a placed it back on his thy. "What should I test next he thought" he had no sooner completed his thought when Gro'Kesh walked into the Kehrite. "Been practicing with the void steel Young Fury" Gro'Kesh said as he spotted the combi-sick that had been sawn in half. Miguel grinned again, "You'd better believe" Miguel said happily. "Then perhaps you should face me in a sparring match wit the combi-stick". "Happy to" Miguel replied.

Miguel watched as Gro'Kesh extended one of the combi-sticks he had retrieved off the wall. Miguel got into a fighting stance and extended his own black combi-stick. Gro'Kesh (as he had done previously), made the first move by bringing his combi-stick in an upward diagonal slash. Miguel swept his combi-stick in a downward crescent motion effectively blocking the slash. Gro'Kesh didn't waste a moment as Miguel caught his block he continued spinning and executed a back kick that caught Miguel square in the chest. Miguel flew back but stayed his on feet. Miguel recovered his breath and charged Gro'Kesh. He swung a horizontal slash which Gro'Kesh blocked; using his momentum he pushed the block aside and brought his foot out in a tornado kick that connected solidly with Gro'Kesh's head. Gro'Kesh stumbled back but didn't go down, seizing the opportunity Miguel jumped and using his combi-stick as a balance, executed a side kangaroo kick that made Gro'Kesh fly backwards and hit the wall of the ship. Miguel readied a fighting stance with his combi-stick ready. As he expected Gro'Kesh got up, before he could react Miguel charged at him, Miguel leaped into the air and brought the combi-stick down full force in a vertical slash. Gro'Kesh just managed to get his combi-stick up and blocked Miguel, however when the two staff's met Gro'Kesh's cracked and broke in half. Leaving Gro'Kesh with his throat exposed to Miguel's combi-stick, Gro'Kesh signaled defeat and Miguel retracted the combi-stick. "You will turn Su'Kra into a pile of dead meat in no time" Gro'Kesh said. Miguel grinned "thanks for the void steel weapons, they work like charm". "As they should" Gro'Kesh responded.

The elder's voice suddenly came on over Gro'Kesh's COM, "Gro'Kesh, bring Young Fury to the docking bay, we have reached Ulnos". Gro'Kesh closed his COM frequency as he turned to Young Fury "Time to go" he said in a tone of slight nervousness. Young Fury must have picked up on it because he responded by shooting him a cocky grin, "don't worry about me, I'll be just fine". Gro'Kesh proceeded to lead Young Fury out of the Kehrite and back to his quarters so he could collect the weapons he wanted for the bad blood hunt. He was surprised to see that young fury would go down to the planet armed with only his void steel wrist blades, both of the shurikens, his ritual knife (which was the only one made from hard meat bone and not void steel), and the combi-stick for weapons. He had his wrist computer on and Black Hearts pendent around his neck but those weren't really weapons unless you counted the enormous plasma explosive, he would also bring the vision sunglasses and hidden ear translator, they would be out of place among these Oomans but it was still less conspicuous than a mask. When Gro'Kesh asked why Young fury would bring only a few of the void steel weapons Young Fury simply replied that he thought it was best to travel light and those were the easiest weapons to conceal. Gro'Kesh decided he agreed with Young Fury's line of logic and escorted him to the docking bay.

When Miguel and Gro'Kesh reached the docking bay Miguel saw that all of the arbitrators had gathered to see him off. "Guess their eager to send me packing" he thought half jokingly. As he climbed into the pod he heard Gro'Kesh speak into his ear, "good luck and good hunting". Miguel smiled "and the same to you" he responded. The pod doors closed on him, "here goes nothing again" Miguel said as he waited for the sudden, inevitable plunge. Moments later his body jerked as he felt the pod plunge down to the planet below, even though he was garbed only in his loincloth Miguel was confident and didn't feel either vulnerable or exposed. "Coming to get ya Su'Kra" he said to himself in a tone so brutal he almost scared himself.

Miguel's body Jerked again as the pod slammed into the surface of the planet. "God I hate these pod rides" Miguel thought angrily as the pod doors opened. Stepping out onto the planet surface, surveying the landscape he saw that he was in what looked like a temperate forest, it wasn't cold so Miguel decided it had to spring or summer. "Time to find the bad blood" Miguel said to himself as he activated his wrist computer. The map of the immediate location given to him by the orbiting ship showed that a mid sized human city was located approximately 6 miles away; Miguel weighed his options and decided that the city was probably his best place for picking up leads. "Guess I should drop in and see what they know" he thought to himself. Activating his cloak he sprinted with amazing speed in the direction of the city.

Miguel was moving along at a good clip when he heard something in front of him; he stopped to listen more closely to realize that the sound was of clashing metal. Peering through a set of bushes he discovered a pair of men, both dressed in long sleeved tunics and pants dueling in a clearing. Both them were armed with short swords and small shields. Miguel heard one of them speak in English in an accent he couldn't place but sounded thick, Miguel was stunned for a moment but remembered that these humans were descended from earth and likely have kept the language even if unaware of Earth as the elder had said Chiva planet humans were. Both men were shouting angry threats at it each other and it couldn't have been clearer that they disliked each other. "Sorry fellas but I need a disguise and you're going to give it to me" Miguel thought as he deactivated his cloak and stepped into the clearing.

Miguel almost laughed out loud as both men turned around and looked at him stupidly but he maintained his composure. "What are you doing here whelp?!" one of the men asked in a tone of sheer irritation at being disrupted. "You have something that I need" Miguel said calmly, "give it to me or you'll both die". The men looked taken aback but held their ground "you dare to interrupt our duel and then talk to us that way, leave immediately boy or we will slay you where you stand". "Have it your way then" Miguel said threateningly. Both men advanced on Miguel with their shields raised and their swords ready to cut. Miguel deployed a shuriken and tossed at the silent man, he screamed like a hard meat when it cut through his sword and shield as though it they were butter and sawed him in half. The loudmouth man, turned look at his fallen ally in amazement, before the shock wore off Miguel charge at him, extended his wrist blades and plunged them into the back of the man's head killing him instantly. "Should've just given me what I needed" Miguel said in a mocking tone as he stripped the clothing off the corpse of his second kill.

As Miguel reached a hill overlooking the city he deactivated his cloak, the city looked like it was out of the classical Roman or Greek periods; it had a lot of the same architecture anyway. "Guess its time to mingle" he thought dully, making sure his shurikens, wrist blades and other Yautja equipment was concealed he made his way into the city.

The market was crowded with merchants, shoppers and everyone else Miguel had suspected would be in a market square from the extremely wealthy to the extremely poor. Miguel listened dully to each conversation as he decided to go into what looked like a bazaar. As Miguel walked in he almost laughed at the fact that looked like a classical bar and strip club, naked exotic dancers, booze servers and anything else he'd expect in a place like that were there. Walking up to one of the servers he got the feeling there was a suppressed fear in the room although he could tell it wasn't directed at him "beer" he said to server in a disinterested tone. The server regarded him for a moment but must have decided he looked ok as he disappeared and brought back a jar and cup a few moments later. Pouring a small amount into his cup he drank it and listened to the conversations disinterestedly until he overheard one conversation that made his head jerk up slightly. "You heard about those strange murders in Pinar?" one patron who was deep in conversation with the man serving his drinks said exasperatedly. "Apparently several gladiatorial contenders were found dead by the authorities with their heads and spines literally missing, they still can't find the killer". Miguel leaned closer to the nearest server, "know what their talking about?" Miguel asked tentatively. "They're discussing the strange murders in the capital city of Pinar not to far from here" the server replied. "How do you get there?" Miguel asked, the server quickly gave him a map of the kingdom which was called Hullcross. After paying for the booze with money found off one of the dead men Miguel was back on the trail and heading for Pinar which was nearly 20 miles away.

After nearly a day of travel he reached Pinar, it looked like a sprawling metropolis compared to the city he had recently been in although it looked like something right out of a Caesar video. Still Miguel wasn't here to visit the sights and as he was walking towards the central square of the city in front of the king's palace, a gong sounded. Suddenly the crowd began moving towards something that resembled a football field. "What's going on" he asked one of the people in the crowd, the old man looked at him as if he were a bumbling idiot but answered his question "it is the championship match of the gladiator games, two of the greatest gladiators in the world will be dueling to the death". "Hmmm" Miguel thought interestedly as he followed the rest of the crowd to the arena "guess this is one way to draw him out". As Miguel took a seat in the back row he surveyed the crowd, he couldn't spot anything unusual but he knew that didn't mean nothing was there.

As the announcer announced the names of the gladiators and other details Miguel didn't care enough about to remember he spotted something. It looked like a clear outline but Miguel recognized it instantly as a Yautja cloak. Miguel whipped on his Yautja modified sunglasses, they would have looked very out of place but everyone else was focused so intently on the two combatants as they faced each other down that no one noticed. Magnifying his view he switched his sight mode to neural and scanned the Yautja, moments later his scan came up positive that the Yautja was disgraced Eta and murderer Su'Kra. "It was obvious why he would come here" Miguel thought as he removed his sunglasses and watched the fight to learn who Su'Kra would pick as a target.

A huge gladiator clad in a silver breastplate and grieves charged, swinging a huge claymore down in an overhead vertical slash. The much smaller man clad in a leather cuirass used his small shield to parry the blow but was forced backwards by the fierce hit. Moving quickly the smaller man ducked and rolled under a horizontal slash swung by the huge man whose blows Miguel could tell were powerful but slow and not followed through very well. As the smaller man ducked a third horizontal swing he unsheathed a dagger and stuck it into the huge man's right calf. The huge man dropped to one knee in pain, in one fluid motion the smaller gladiator spun around and used his sword to sever the huge man's head. "Our champion!!" the announcer's voice boomed out. As the gladiator left the arena Miguel covertly followed him through the crowd. He watched as the gladiator entered a small stone building that Miguel took to be his home. Taking up a concealed position across the street Miguel waited and watched.

Miguel waited for what seemed like hours until finally in the dead of night the gladiator emerged, he was carrying a long sword but did not have on his cuirass. "Going to patronize a whore house eh?" Miguel thought as he turned to follow the gladiator. Miguel tailed the gladiator to a bizarre back alley of some kind where three other men were waiting. Miguel activated his cloak and got closer to listen in. The gladiator was the first to speak "got the money". The lead man looked resentful but tossed a bag at the champion "there's your bet fair and square, better hope the authorities don't catch you, penalty for private gambling is death". The champion grinned back at them evilly "like to see them try to kill me he said, I'm invincible". Suddenly a hail of spear projectiles rained out of nowhere killing all four men inside the alley. Adjusting his view modes he got a lock, it was Su'Kra. "Just the Pauk-de Yautja I was looking for".

Miguel was lucky; Su'Kra hadn't noticed him as he was so intent on his kills. Miguel decided to wait a little longer as Su'Kra dropped to the ground to collect his kills. "So his talent is with the spear gun" Miguel thought "lets just knock that out of commission" Miguel activated a shuriken, Su'Kra finally realized he was there and raised the spear gun, but he was too late, the shuriken sliced through the spear gun rendering it useless. Su'Kra was fazed but quickly recovered and extended his wrist blades. "So that's how you want to play" Miguel said as he extended his own "fine lets play!" Su'Kra raised his wrist blades and charged at him stopping short so he could slash them downward diagonally. Miguel saw it coming, and pivoting his feet side stepped the slash as he brought his own wrist blades outward horizontally. He saw Su'Kra roar in pain as the blades cut deeply. Miguel was only concerned about one thing, Su'Kra had on a plasma caster but didn't use it, however if Su'Kra decided he was losing too badly he could chose to try and shoot him. Su'Kra however didn't seem interested in the idea. Miguel decided it was because Su'Kra still thought he was honorable, "saves me a lot of trouble" Miguel thought as he outside blocked a sucker punch, sparks flew as the blades connected with each other. Suddenly Su'Kra's wrist blades shattered into to pieces, seizing his opportunity Miguel plunged the wrist blades into Su'Kra's chest, he dead before he hit the ground. "Another one bites the dust" Miguel thought happily.

Miguel was quick in using his ritual knife to take Su'Kra's head but that still left him with the trouble of disposing with the body. "Plasma explosive is probably too much for a simple cover, so what do I do?" Suddenly Miguel spotted the plasma caster on Su'Kra's shoulder "that'll work" Miguel said to himself as he used his wrist blades to make a small rupture in the power core, a gradual whining that was growing louder gradually filled the air, activating his cloak Miguel tore across the city away from the impending explosion with Yautja speed, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He way halfway to his exit at the gate when he felt the plasma caster explode; he turned around and magnified the vision on his sunglasses to see that the explosion had vaporized the body and caused a nearby building to collapse. "Guess it worked" he thought wildly to himself.

Miguel made his way back to the pod the next day and used it to beacon the ship. He wouldn't have to wait long before a smaller drop ship uncloaked. "These guys are punctual" Miguel thought half admiringly. The ramp opened and he was glad to see that Gro'Kesh was the one descending it. Presenting the head of Su'Kra Miguel was happy to see Gro'Kesh's eyes shine with pride. "You have done well Young Fury, you may make it into another skull while we are on are way back to the ship. As Miguel walked up the ramp he took one last look out at the wilderness, "Shame" he thought "would have been a hell of a place to go camping".

Meanwhile back on Earth the three predator bad bloods had delved deep into Chicago's abandoned subway lines and were standing in front of a massive set of doors with Yautja writing on them. The grimaced "we need to get through these doors and obtain the fabled treasure on the other side of them". Fo'Sun quickly spoke up "there's no way through them without the seal that brother Black Heart was carrying". The leader turned around and backhanded the smaller Yautja, "don't you think I know that you worthless piece of C'jit" the leader yelled. "I'll get through them when I tear out the heart of the one who killed our brother" he growled in frustration.

_This may be the last chapter I can post before next week as I'm going to be very busy for the rest of this week, but I hope you can review this chapter so I know what you think of the chapter and the story in general._


	11. The bad blood brothers

The bad blood brothers

Miguel stared at the new skull that he mounted next to Black Heart's, "I could get use to this" he thought absentmindedly. He had to admit, it had been a fairly easy hunt and capture but he was positive that the clan's trip to earth would definitely yield a more difficult assignment now that he had proven himself again. As he shed the tunic he had acquired on the hunt he was running scenarios through his mind of what his next assignment would be. As he finished undressing he walked towards his bed, he desperately wanted some sleep as the hunt had tired him though he was not exhausted. Laying down he decided that it would be best to just forget about the next mission until he was called for it.

Gro'Kesh had been sleeping in his room when a call from the elder woke him. "Gro'Kesh come meet me, I need to see you". Gro'Kesh slowly raised himself from his bed "I'm on my way" he grumbled as he stepped out of his quarters. He met the elder in the meeting room, however no other arbitrators were present. "You wanted to see me elder?" Gro'Kesh said, his tone was flat but the elder could tell it had suspicion in it. "Yes, Gro'Kesh multiple clans are converging on Earth and many arbitrators and hunters are being deployed all over the planet". Gro'Kesh stared at the elder with a puzzled expression, "why are there so many?" The elder was quick to answer "the hunters are there to hunt Oomans but the arbitrators are using it as cover while they conduct a massive bad blood hunt, they have asked that our clan participate and all of our arbitrators and the agent will be deployed".

Gro'Kesh was still confused "why amass so many Yautja?" who is the target?" he asked. "The bad blood brothers" the elder said in an absolute tone. Gro'Kesh felt his stomach squirm at the mention of the notorious brothers. "How many other Yautja are being deployed?" Gro'Kesh asked calmly. "About 40 arbitrators and 200 Young bloods, blooded, and warrior Yautja" the elder replied grimly.

Miguel woke with his head pounding but he rubbed it and got out of bed all the same. "Can't be too far from earth" he thought excitedly, "guess I should find Gro'Kesh and see if he wants to spar". He decided that he should go to the Kehrite to see if Gro'Kesh was there, when he got there he didn't see Gro'Kesh but was surprised to find the elder standing in the center of the room. When the elder saw him he beckoned him over. "Care to spar a little with me Young Fury to prepare you for your next hunt" the elder said in an enthusiastic voice. Miguel was taken aback but grinned "hell yeah" he replied. "Then choose you weapon". Miguel walked over to the wall and took a pair of training mauls (he had left his void steel equipment locked in his room). Spinning the mauls forward in his hands he walked back into center square to face the elder, both assumed fighting stances and the match began.

Miguel acted first as he leaped into the air and launched a spinning back kick. The elder moving with extraordinary speed for his age the elder grabbed his foot and threw him as hard as he could. Miguel flew backwards towards the wall but steadied his feet before he got there, using his feet and leg like springs he pushed off the wall and headed toward the elder so fast the old Yautja couldn't react in time. At he same time Miguel soared just his head, he flipped the mauls (which he had been holding flat against his chest) so the blades pointed downward. The result was that the mauls came low enough to hit the elder squarely in the head sending him backward. The old Yautja quickly stood up and attempted to use his combi-stick to strike Miguel in the side of the head. Acting on reflex Miguel brought his left maul up and blocked with suck force that sparks flew where the two weapons met.

Moving again with blurring speed Young Fury brought his right maul up, attempting to use the flat side of blade to deliver a blow to the side of the elders head. The elder, also moving with incredible speed, shoved aside the left maul and shifted his grip to bring up the opposite side of combi-stick which managed to catch Young Fury's strike but almost caused the combi-stick to fly from his hands "Gro'Kesh has been proven right over and over again when it comes to this Ooman" the elder thought as he swept his combi-stick low in an attempt to sweep Young Fury's legs out from under them. He wasn't surprised when Young Fury simply jumped over them. Then it happened, just when he wasn't expecting it Young Fury launched a ferocious tornado attack which succeeded in knocking the combi-stick out of his hands. Acting with just as quick a reflex the elder deployed his wrist blades and put them to Young Fury's throat just as Young Fury put his right maul to his throat.

"Well this is an awkward position to be in" Miguel thought in amusement. Both he and the elder took their weapons from each other's throat and declared it a draw.

"You're the greatest maul wielder I have ever seen in my life, and I have lived a long life" the elder added jokingly. Miguel smiled "I never was good at much else but fighting and hunting". The elder stared back at him "I have called a special summons to all the arbitrators including you, who will undertake one of our most dangerous bad blood hunts, please come with me". Miguel's breathing became heavy with a mix of enthusiasm, bloodlust, and anxiety as he followed the elder towards the meeting room.

When Miguel entered the room he noticed that all the arbitrators including Gro'Kesh had gathered, they looked like they were about to be eaten alive. Miguel noticed another Yautja sitting next to Gro'Kesh that he had never seen before. Acting coolly Miguel too a seat as the elder walked up to his chair at the head at the table and watched as a holograph appeared in the center. Miguel was stunned to see what looked like a small fleet of Yautja clan ships. "As you can see many Yautja are converging for this hunt, the hunters will provide cover while the arbitrators seek out the bad blood brothers". "Thanks to Gi'Ha, we have located at least one of them in this city".

The elder indicated a spot on the map and Miguel almost gasped in shock, it was Chicago. "Back to the projects" he thought sarcastically. "The bad blood brothers also have at least a dozen associate bad bloods working for them, and at least one of them is here." The arbitrators growled in agreement. "Therefore we will send Young Fury along with two other arbitrators to find this associate and question him about their whereabouts, the rest of you will be deployed in various parts of the planet". "The bad blood brothers are as follows" the elder continued indicating the holograph again. Miguel could make out a scrawny looking Yautja who seemed to have little muscle by comparison with the rest.

"The small one is Fo'Sun; he is a weak fighter and mainly serves as their strategist and mechanic but he is highly intelligent and without honor so be cautious, the second larger one is Si'Lok, he is unnaturally good with distance weapons and is considered the sharpshooter of the three, the third is their new alpha male and leader Hrak'Ni, he is the muscle and commands the brothers and their associates." The elder looked up with a trace of revulsion on his old features. "They work as a team and are responsible for many murders, rapes, and other crimes that all merit death and are to be killed on sight. That is all, dismissed".

Every arbitrator let out a roar of pride and rage at the honor of apprehending these notorious bad bloods as they left the meeting room, Miguel turned to follow them until he heard the elders voice. "Young Fury, may I see you a moment". Miguel turned back and walked to the elder; he was dwarfed by the elder's eight foot height but he was not intimidated. The elder considered him a moment before speaking "the arbitrators know about you and the city in which you will be hunting, but the hunters do not".

Miguel looked at him for a moment before he replied. "What are my orders regarding them?" he said coolly. "Eliminate them if they try to hunt you, but try to avoid conflict with them" the elder said in a matter of fact voice. "Very Well" Miguel replied. "Will Gro'Kesh be coming with me?" he asked uncertainly. "No, he is needed to help round up most of the associates in another part of the planet, now go". Miguel gave the salute of respect and proceeded to his quarters.

After mounting his weapons, tying Black Hearts pendent around his neck and loading his Chiva Awu'asa into his drop ship quarters, he decided to speak to Gro'Kesh once more before they parted. "Gro'Kesh do you know anything about these brothers?" Miguel asked. He was trying to gain as much information as he could about what he might run into. Gro'Kesh gave him a look of concern but replied anyway, "I only know that they are vicious and ruthless, also I believe they are out for revenge against the one who killed their former leader, Black Heart.

Miguel wasn't too surprised given the luck he'd had in his life. "They know about me?" he asked in a tone that suggested he didn't give a shit. "No, they believe a Yautja arbitrator did" Gro'Kesh replied. We are unsure why but we believe it has something to do with that pendent and more than just simple revenge. Miguel was perplexed "why?"

"We do not know yet but whatever the reason it can't be good for us if they get their hands on it" Gro'Kesh replied.

Miguel watched the ramp closed as he mulled over the recent events in his mind. "What could the bad bloods possibly need with this?" he thought holding the pendent up in front of him. "Well guess I can't worry about that now" he thought as the ships engines fired up. "We will reach the planet momentarily after takeoff" the arbitrator piloting the ship announced over the COM. Miguel sat in his quarters examining his void steel weapons and Chiva Awu'asa. He knew he couldn't take the Awu'asa as it was a dead giveaway to anyone. After some debate he decided to take the same weapons he had used when he had hunted S'Kra. Putting on his wrist blade and computer he then strapped both shurikens on either side of his loincloth and the combi-stick on the back of his loincloth. "Watch out world here I come" he thought sarcastically to himself".

Meanwhile back on earth Hrak'Ni flanked by his two brothers and one associate, studied the readouts of the Yautja ships in high orbit over the planet. Hrak'Ni smiled darkly "so their hunt begins".

Miguel stepped into the back alley and surveyed the street; after he and the rest of the arbitrators had separated he had raided a clothing store coming up with a long black trench coat, a camo tank top and black basketball shorts. Not the slickest ensemble but better than running around Chicago in just a loincloth, even if it was summer at nighttime, it hid his void steel weapons well also. As he looked up and down the street he spotted a silver Jeep Cherokee. Suddenly an Idea occurred to him, as he used his wrist computer to open the electronic lock and hot wired it. An idea had occurred to him while he was on the drop ship aswell and the more he thought about it the better it seemed. As he headed toward the dock warehouses on the east side of the city he mulled the idea over and over again in his mind. "If they like using team tactics, I'll break out some new surprises for them. With some **sweet, hot lead!**" he thought as he drove the vehicle down the main road.

_I'm back with more for your enjoyment, I am eager to know what you thnk of the story so far and what you think of the direction it is taking, so see you next time when I have the next chapter up!  
_


	12. Gearing up Ooman style

Gearing up……….Ooman style

Miguel flipped on his sunglasses and rubbed Black Heart's pendent for good luck as he parked the jeep outside of one of the waterside warehouse. He'd been here once or twice before back when he was still running in the projects. The warehouse belonged to the Chavez brothers who by all accounts were notoriously ruthless gun and drug dealers. If you wanted to fight a war in the projects this is where you come to. Miguel was broke so he decided to arrive at a time he knew there were only a few guards on duty.

"Don't need the full forces of the Chavez brothers coming down on me, before I even get started" he thought in the first serious mindset since he got to earth. He had learned the password to get into the place awhile ago when he was carrying their bribes to local officials and cops.

When he got to the door he noticed two armed guards standing outside, one looked up at him with a bored yet alert expression. "Password?" he asked rather suspiciously.

"I like things that go boom" Miguel replied in a confident tone. The man regarded him for a second but opened the door anyway.

"Some things never change" Miguel thought amused. He knew that the Chavez brothers should have changed that password a few months ago but as he suspected they were more interested in buying hookers in their prostitution ring than running their business operation.

As Miguel walked into the central armory he noticed a rather fat man sitting behind a desk and only one other guard on the opposite side of the warehouse yet there was wall after wall of every gun imaginable.

"Looks like I came at the right time, they have a shortage a men and an excess of hardware on account of the turf wars" Miguel thought excitedly. For as long as Miguel had been in the city projects he knew that the Chavez brothers were constantly in war with the various street gangs. Because the turf war was mainly over drugs that's what the majority of the Chavez brother's men would be guarding.

"Stupid idiots" he thought as he walked up to the counter. Miguel tech scanned the fat man behind the desk and found he was carrying a pistol so he would wait to make his move. As he walked up to the desk the fat man looked up and was slightly taken aback at the teenager that was walking up to him. Straightening himself the fat man decided to talk first. "What you need stranger?" Miguel looked back at him with an amused expression "guns" he replied.

"You got money?" the fat man asked as though he was selling gum at a convenience store. Miguel cracked a grin as he covertly fingered his shuriken "all you need".

The fat man looked back up at him again and Miguel could see the greed in his eyes "what kind can I get for ya?" Miguel looked up and down the walls, expertly scanning each piece until he saw something he was looking for.

"Desert Eagle…..Two of them" Miguel said coolly.

"What caliber?" the fat man replied. "50. AE, I like the added knockdown" Miguel answered.

Going over to the pistol rack the man pulled two D. Eagles and placed them on a large, circular table in the center of the room. "Anything else?" the man said with a hopeful look on his face. "Don't worry asshole; you'll get what's coming to you" Miguel thought but said "yes, there is quite a bit more". "Well start listing them, I got nowhere to go" Miguel almost laughed but decided not to as the fat man looked disgruntled.

"Lets see" Miguel thought out loud. "I'll take an AR-15 with attached M203 grenade launcher". The fat man laid it out on the table, "this is a fine gun, and it will wipe out a whole group of enemies guaranteed" the fat man said jovially.

"Hopefully it will" Miguel thought to himself.

"M60E3" Miguel said with rising excitement, the M60 was highly regarded as a weapon that would wipe out a large group of enemies with time and ammo to spare.

"Ingram MAC10…..two of them as well", Miguel had decided that if he was taking on a group of notorious bad bloods he had better have the capability to put enough rounds down range to tear even the toughest Yautja into pieces. "M72 LAW rocket launcher", "Sawn off Mossberg 500 with pistol grip", "Mk3A1 Jackhammer", "M93 Black Arrow Sniper rifle", "MM1 Grenade Launcher", "Stevenson 12 gauge, double barrel sawn off shotgun".

It was an impressive arsenal Miguel had to admit as he stared at the weapons. "Well you wanted firepower" Miguel thought sarcastically, it was true though Miguel liked the fact that Yautja weaponry had finesse but their weapons, even his void steel weapons lacked raw power like human weapons that had plenty of power but lacked finesse. "Each balances off the other's shortcomings" Miguel thought smugly to himself.

The fat man again spoke up "so that will 75,000 dollars, I'll throw in the ammunition for free".

Miguel tensed as he knew what would come next "can't pay you man sorry".

The fat man looked perplexed then turned red as a wild anger swept over him. The fat man went for his gun but was too slow. By the time his hand settled on the grip Miguel had deployed his wrist blades and drove them through the man's chest. The move came so fast the fat man couldn't even get out a shout of pain. The guard on the opposite side of the armory ran towards them attempted to draw a bead on Miguel. Acting on instinct Miguel activated his shuriken, and as the man raised his rifle the shuriken cut him in half just below his rib cage. Miguel could see the man's upper and lower torso start to spasm, for one who had seen as much death as he had he knew this was normal so it didn't bother him.

"Now to take care of those two assholes outside" Miguel said to himself as he cocked both his D. Eagles and holstered them. As he stepped into the corridor he saw that they had changed positions and instead of being outside the door they were now inside the warehouse about 30 feet or so from him.

"Sorry boys its time to die" Miguel yelled at them as loud as he could. Both men turned to face him, suddenly one the men started raising his rifle. Miguel's reflex was immediate and as the rifle nestled against the man's shoulder Miguel's bullet hit him right in between the eyebrows and the man went down. The second man reached for his pistol but before his hand even got there Miguel's shuriken severed his head. "Sorry boys, price of doing business" Miguel said mockingly to the corpses as he stacked his weapons on a cart and wheeled them out to the jeep.

As Miguel loaded ammo box after ammo box and his weapons into the jeep Miguel thought that it was probably best to load what he didn't need into his quarters on the ship. Retracing his route he brought the jeep to an abandoned rail line that had been used to stash the ship. It took Miguel nearly an hour but he finally managed to get all his human weapons into his quarters.

Even though Miguel had all his void steel weapons and human weapons available he decided that while he was only scouting where they were he decided to bring only his shurikens, his combi-stick, and his D. Eagles. He holstered his D. Eagles, strapped the shurikens on his thy, placed the combi-stick under his coat on the small of his back and walked out.

As Miguel hid the jeep near the entrance to the tunnel he pondered where he should go first to pick up some leads. He only had to think for a moment before it hit him. "Luigi's bar" he said to himself as memories flooded back to him. Luigi's bar was a strong point for what was left of the Sicilian Mafiosi in Chicago and it was a popular hang out spot of one of the best information brokers on the street. Vito Benelli "AKA Know-It-All" on account that he seemed to know about everything that went on in Chicago. Miguel activated his cloak and began heading as fast as he could towards the bar. Even though it was on the other side of the city Miguel reached it in less than twenty minutes and proceeded inside after deactivating his cloak in an alley across the street.

As Miguel walked in he wasn't surprised to see Benelli sleeping in a drunken haze over by the bar. Miguel hoped he would remember him. They had done a small job together for the mob and Benelli did say he owed him one. Benelli used to be one of the finest hit men of the Sicilian mob and on top of that one of the best freelance information traffickers in the city, but now he was a broken down wreck.

As Miguel took a seat next to him and nudged him Benelli continued sleeping as if there was nobody there. Picking up a bottle of tequila from the bar, Miguel raised it over his head and smashed next to Benelli's ear. Benelli jolted awake and looked around menacingly until he spotted Miguel next to him.

"Amigo what are you doing here? I thought you were dead" he blurted out. Miguel smiled back at him, "must've been some other guy" he replied quietly. Benelli looked up at him his eyes held a tinge of an alcoholic haze but he managed to collect himself "what can I do for ya Miguel".

Miguel glanced back at him before ordering a beer, as he took long drafts he finally decided on what he wanted to ask. "Anything unusual been happening on the street Know-It-All". Miguel could tell Benelli was racking his brains by how intense he was staring at his booze.

"There have been some weird things going on even for the projects" Benelli said in a slurred voice. People been turning up with their heads cut off, most of them just missing their heads although some of the bodies have been mutilated". Miguel twitched at this information but luckily Benelli was too drunk to notice. "Yeah most of them are gang members to but there was a homeless person slaughter on the north side, cops got no idea who did it". Miguel felt sure that the one who committed these murders was one of the brothers, if not then probably an associate.

As he turned to leave he looked back at Benelli "Thanks Benelli, mind keeping in touch in case I need you again?" Benelli looked slightly confused but Miguel could tell that was only because of the booze. "Sure Amigo, call me anytime" Benelli said as he handed Miguel a cell phone number.

As Miguel walked down the central road he decided to go back to the ship and collect a few of his additional weapons. It had grown very dark and he decided it would probably be better to switch his sunglasses to thermal vision so he could see better than he could with his normal vision. As he walked through one of the back alleys he thought hard about what had been said and the more he thought about it the more it looked like a bad blood slaying had taken place on the Westside. "Many unarmed non-combatants slaughtered in a mass murder style instead of singled out like a hunter. "Definitely a bad blood" he thought to himself.

As Miguel reached the mouth of the alley to figures rounded the corner. Miguel could see even from his thermal vision that they were human. Switching off his vision mode he could see that they both looked real big and real disheveled. Miguel tensed as one pulled out a butcher knife while the other wielded what looked like a lead pipe as long as Miguel's arm.

"Muggers" Miguel thought as his body tensed, he began to reach for one of his shurikens but decided he could do this with his bare hands. "Give up your cash or you dead" the man with knife said in what must have seemed to him as menacing. Miguel however took it as a challenge. "Come here if you want to die then" Miguel said in a practically disinterested tone.

The man looked taken aback. It didn't last long however as raised his knife over his head in a reverse grip and ran at Miguel screaming in fury. Miguel high blocked and catching the man's wrist with his other hand he twisted the knife out of his grip and moving forward thrust it clean through the man's heart. The man fell to ground; he was dead before he made contact with it.

His partner with the lead pipe had watched the whole event take place with a dumb founded expression. However the mugger collected himself and charged at Miguel raising the pipe over his head as he went. Thinking quickly Miguel pulled the butcher knife out the corpse of the first mugger and threw it as hard as he could at the charging man. The man stopped dead in his tracks as the knife impacted squarely in his chest with a dull thud. The man gurgled as blood spilled from his mouth, the he fell to the ground. Walking over to the fallen man Miguel checked his vitals and was reassured that the man was now as dead as his partner.

"Well you picked the wrong guy to mug" Miguel thought morosely. Miguel had to admit he rather enjoyed killing but like the honorable Yautja he didn't like senseless killing or wasting his time with prey that was unworthy.

As Miguel turned to leave he thought he spotted a cloaked Yautja on the roof of one of the closer buildings, only this one seemed smaller than normal. Activating his sunglasses he made sure to not stare directly at it and look around as if he had heard something strange. Moments later he got his neural info.

He only looked at the class of warrior and seeing that whoever it was was an honorable Young Blood turned and walked out of the alley up the street, not bothering to read anymore of the readout. He decided to heed the elder's words and avoid conflict with honorable hunters. "Try to come at me Young Blood and I'll be sure to make you as dead as those two" he thought to himself absentmindedly.

As he made his way up the street the Young blood continued to follow him by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. "Guess I'm going to have to kill this one, but for now I'll act like I'm stupid" Miguel thought as he formulated a plan on how to effectively confront this foolish Young Blood.

_I love cliffhangers!!!! and I hope you have enjoyed this chapter_ _and the story as a whole_


	13. Close Encounter

Close Encounter

Si'Mara jumped from rooftop to rooftop as she continued to observe the Ooman she was following. She was impressed that she had finally found an Ooman worth hunting.

"About time I found halfway decent prey" she thought excitedly. She had been hunting here for nearly a week. Her father, the clan elder announced that the clan would be joining several others in a massive Pyode Amedha hunt and even the Young Bloods were allowed to participate.

Si'Mara and the rest of the Young Bloods had been extremely excited about this prospect as hunting Oomans was normally reserved for only the blooded Yautja and those above them.

Si'Mara was more excited than the rest when her father allowed her to go on the hunt even though she had only just completed her Chiva about three Ooman days ago. When Si'Mara began her hunt she was extremely frustrated at how difficult it was to find decent Ooman Prey.

"Oomans, so weak, I wonder why Yautja waste their time hunting them?" she thought to herself. The blooded and warrior Yautja often spoke about how worthy many Ooman warriors were as prey but all the Oomans she had seen on the home world were weak and pathetic Eta towards whom she'd had nothing but disgust.

As she continued to follow the Ooman she lowered eyes in disgust and memory of how her past had played out. It filled her with shame that she was not entirely Yautja. Her mother had been an Ooman, but her father was the elder Yautja of her clan.

She remembered her mother's story very well but had she been dealt a terrible blow when her mother had been killed at the hands of the bad bloods. Since then she had been raised by her father and grew up to be a strong unblooded fighter like many of the others.

However she was only 6'1" in height making her as short as many Oomans. Also she had aged like an Ooman at first as she was only about 19 Ooman years old but it was typical of an Ooman-Yautja hybrid to age like an Ooman at first but then around the time they were teens the growth would slow down and virtually stop, from there on they would age like a Yautja.

"If I could cut the Ooman side out of me, I would in an instant" she thought to herself disgruntled.

She had believed the other Unblooded when they that her Ooman side made her some what weak and had been ashamed of it. Even though she had beaten all the other Unblooded and even a good deal of the Young Bloods on the clan ship she was still ashamed and she had spent hours glaring at her reflection.

Her face looked mostly Ooman except for her gold eyes and predator style dreadlocks; despite her Yautja eyes she saw things in the Ooman spectrum of light without her mask.

Her body looked more like a Yautja except it had a light tint to it and she lacked the height of the Yautja. Her father had often told her to be proud of what she was and what she lacked in size she made up for in ferocity. However it had been difficult for her gain any respect as she was still viewed as a half-breed outsider.

That had all changed after she went on her Chiva. She had earned the skulls of three Kiande Amedha warriors she had killed in close quarters combat and was the sole survivor of the group.

Her Chiva had earned her much respect among the rest of her clan and became the pride of her father. But she still felt as if the Ooman side of her was an affliction.

When her father had allowed her to go on this hunt with the other Young Bloods she had been very excited, she had reasoned that maybe hunting skilled and strong Ooman warriors and by taking one or more as a trophy, she could make peace with the Ooman side of herself.

So far she had been disappointed as none of the Oomans she had seen so far, even some of the armed ones she'd killed didn't merit a trophy. "Guess Oomans Are nothing" she had thought sadly to herself.

However her hope had been restored when she was scouting for possible trophy's on one of the partially destroyed sections of the city and had spotted an Ooman kill two other much larger armed Oomans with his bare hands.

The thought of the Ooman swiftly brought her back to the present as she observed him turn and walk into a narrow alley between two mid-sized buildings.

"What a trophy this Ooman's skull will make" she thought to herself excitedly as she waited until he was about halfway from the mouth on either side of the alley, then jumped into they alley from her perch on top of one of the buildings that over shadowed the alley.

To her slight dismay she landed nearly twenty feet behind the Ooman.

"Oh well, it doesn't matter" she thought to herself "this Ooman will be dead momentarily anyway" even inside her head she sounded very cocky.

Miguel heard the Young Blood's feet thud against the ground and could instantly sense that it was time to get physical and lethal.

Moving with blurring speed he turned, drew one of his D. Eagles and fired at the Young Bloods wrist.

As he had hoped it hit the wrist computer and caused the cloaking device to short out. Holstering his gun he stared and quickly evaluated his attacker.

This particular Young Blood looked slightly odd however, as he had never seen any other Yautja that looked quite like it.

The Young Blood wore a mask of simple design with a clan mark burned into it and an Awu'asa with a slightly bizarre shape to it that suggested that his attacker was female. The height of the Young Blood puzzled him the most however as the Young Blood was slightly shorter than he was. "Must be runt" he thought to himself.

He wouldn't have much time to think about it however as the Young Blood extended a combi-stick and charged at him with a bloodthirsty roar.

"Shit!" Miguel cursed out loud.

As the Young Blood came at him with a horizontal swipe Miguel's instinct kicked in and he rolled under the blow and kicked the Young Blood as hard as he could. His kick caught her in between the shoulder blades and she flew forward knocking over a set of garbage cans as she landed.

"I've been there before" Miguel thought amused.

This Yautja was quicker than the rest of the Yautja he'd fought but it became obvious whoever it was let their mind become clouded and slightly clumsy when angry. As the Young Blood screamed another roar rage and charged at him again it attempted to impale him with the combi-stick. Pivoting his feet Miguel shifted his body and dodged the tip by millimeters.

Moving with the same blurring speed, he seized the end of the combi-stick and spun around; bracing his shoulder against his end of the combi-stick he used the push of his shoulder and his momentum to wrench the weapon free from its owner's hands.

He continued his spin and brought the combi-stick around causing it to impact squarely with the back of the Young Bloods head, effectively knocking her out. The unconscious Young Blood was still moving however and landed heavily on the ground with a dull thud.

"Shouldn't have tested me" Miguel said to the unconscious form as he flipped the Young Blood over to lie on its back. Miguel extended his black wrist blades (made almost invisible by the night) and positioned them to the Young Bloods throat. "I probably shouldn't do this but I want to see the face the one who was stalking me".

He kept his wrist blades to the Young Blood's throat as he began to remove the hoses that kept the mask in place. Slowly he began to remove the mask and when he looked down at the face behind it, he jumped back in shock.

"Holy Shit!" he thought stunned. As he looked back into the face of the unconscious Young Blood he could see from her face that she was obviously female but her face looked human and yet the part of her body that wasn't covered by armor looked more Yautja. Although he could see the shadow of Yautja DNA in her face and a shadow of human DNA in her body one part of her looked mostly human and the other mostly Yautja.

Miguel retracted his wrist blades, he knew he was obliged to kill any hunter that attacked him but for some reason he couldn't bring himself kill the one who was sprawled in front of him. Lifting her over his shoulder he began to move quickly in the direction of his ship's hiding place. "I'm gonna regret this" he thought morosely as he continued to move as fast as he could in the direction of the ship.

When he arrived at the ship Miguel activated the ramp to find that none of the other arbitrators were there. Miguel was relived as it would mean he wouldn't have to answer any annoying or awkward questions. The ship was small but it was designed for pack hunts meaning it would have a medical area.

Miguel opened the door and placed her on the medical table in the center of the room and removed her weapons but left her Awu'asa on her and placed her mask next to her. Miguel decided that she wouldn't need a medicomp as he hadn't inflicted any serious wounds.

"Guess I'll just let her wake up" Miguel thought with a feeling of foreboding "not looking forward to that". Miguel went to his room and removed his human clothes and all his weapons except for his wrist blades, leaving him in his Yautja loincloth.

"Guess I'd better head over to the north side in a little while" Miguel thought as he loaded several Mk3A1 Jackhammer magazine drums with twelve gauge rounds, loaded one of the ten round drums into the Jackhammer and cocked the weapon with a satisfying series of clacking sounds.

Miguel looked up at his trophies before he decided to get some advice about what to do. "Guess I'd better tell the elder about this" he thought grimly setting the Jackhammer next to the door.

Miguel activated the ships transmitter and moments later the elders face appeared on the screen. "Young Fury?" the elder asked in a surprised voice "why are you contacting me?" Miguel hesitated before he finally answered.

"I ran into a Young Blood and didn't kill them, instead I brought her hear for treatment". "Why?" the elder asked stunned "turn on the video feed in the medical center". As Miguel keyed the video feed in the med lab the elder's eyes widened, the elder's reaction made Miguel feel uneasy.

"You may have made a wise choice by not killing her Young Fury" the elder said regaining his composure, "That is Si'Mara, daughter of elder Zi'Gir, leader of the Black Dawn clan". Miguel was very confused about the direction in which this conversation was going.

"What should I do when she wakes up then elder?" Miguel asked almost desperately. The elder thought for a long moment before he finally answered "I believe she is trustworthy enough to know about who you really are, even if she is only a foolish Young Blood she is known for her ability to be discreet".

Taken aback would have been an understatement as Miguel stared back at the elder, he maintained his composure however. "If you believe it is wise elder" he answered in an almost skeptical voice as he broke the connection.

"Guess if the elder believes I can trust her it shouldn't kill me to explain a few things; and it would probably be better for the health of both of us" Miguel reasoned as he tried to convince himself what he was doing was right. He was still very, very

Miguel collected his thoughts and ran the recent events through his head as he studied his previous opponent's fighting capabilities and prowess from his memory. She wasn't extraordinarily refined when it came to skill, but damn, her rage was more powerful and intense than any Yautja Miguel had come across and he could sense that she was a force to be reckoned with because of that.

However Miguel had seen that all her rage blinded her and made her predictable and sloppy. The very first thing that his father had taught him was that rage made you powerful but it also made you blind and clumsy. However his father had gone on to say that rage has two forms and to make the best use of rage the two must be balanced.

Miguel still remembered that day as if it were yesterday.

(Flashback)

Miguel looked up at José from the ground, they had been sparring with Bo staffs all day and when José had knocked him to the ground Miguel had screamed and charged at him only to have José spin around his strike and sweep his legs out from under him.

"Guess I shouldn't have lost it like that" Miguel said disappointedly

"Rage makes you powerful but it also makes you blind, there is a way however to be able to use your rage to make you powerful yet not blind you". José replied as Miguel looked at him with undivided attention.

"Rage enters the body raw and unformed however it can be expressed in two forms; I call these two forms hot rage and cold rage."

"Hot rage is active anger, like what you have just displayed is charging and hitting as hard and fast as you can with all thought given to power and no thought given to controlling it. Cold rage is passive anger, when the one enraged does not act on their rage; all thought is given to control and none to power."

"To have rage work for you as a single edged sword, both of these forms of rage must be balanced in complete harmony".

"Strike with the might of searing hot anger, yet see through the eyes of anger that is as cold as ice, it is very difficult to achieve yet it is not impossible, remember this Young Fury and work hard to achieve it".

(End Flashback)

"I'll always remember" Miguel thought morosely. It had taken Miguel a long time figure out what José was talking about and even longer in controlling it. He had been on the cusp of mastering this concept when he had been brought to the Yautja, an event that quickly sped up the process.

Miguel looked again at the video feed in the med lab and sighed deeply. "Guess I'm gonna have to teach someone else, if she doesn't destroy the ship first" Miguel thought to himself with a deep sense of foreboding. He really didn't want to confront her when she woke up, but he knew he had to.

_Hope you have enjoyed my latest chapter of Agent of the Arbitrators, If you did please tell me, if not then please tell me what could be done to make it even better!!! See you next time! _


	14. Rude Awakening

Rude Awakening

Miguel paced back and forth across the bridge of the ship as he contemplated what would happen when the female in the med lab woke up, the thought made him uneasy and after seeing as much as he'd seen he knew that that was an accomplishment. "Damn I hate waiting around when I know something bad is going to happen" Miguel thought balefully.

He wanted desperately to just go out after the bad blood but something told him that doing that would only make worse. Turning towards the door he keyed it open and walked out heading in the direction of his quarters, he had a justified feeling that he was going to need to be prepared for when she woke up.

"What happened?" Si'Mara groaned as she felt herself float back up to consciousness. She was disoriented at first but moments later all her memories and rage from her previous encounter came surging back with great strength. "I'll kill that Ooman when I find him!" she thought fiercely as she regained the feeling in her body.

As she sat up she confused as well as stunned to realize that she was on a medical table in the med lab of a Yautja ship. "Did the others find me?" she thought bewildered.

She had originally landed and been traveling with a small group of Young Bloods but had left the pack and gone off on her own in search of greater prey than what they had currently been finding but she couldn't possibly see how they could have caught up with her fast enough.

"They probably killed the Ooman then" she thought with a growing anger. "He was my kill and his skull was mine!" she roared in fury and threw the nearest thing she could find which happened to be some kind of medical cart at the wall. The cart sounded like a bomb as it burst into pieces.

Spinning around she kicked the wall with such force that it left a dent and made a gigantic crashing noise so loud it shook the whole deck. She turned around again and looked for something else to throw so that she could vent her formidable anger.

Miguel had just returned to his quarters when he heard a bloodcurdling roar of rage and the moments later heard something hit the wall with such force it caused the wall to shake.

"Guess she's awake" Miguel thought sarcastically to himself, "time to face the music". Miguel slid on his wrist blades and put on the pendent before he began walking nervously towards the med lab. He seriously dreaded what kind of destruction he would find the med lab in.

"Gonna need some luck and an insurance policy to get through this one" he said to himself half seriously and half sarcastically.

Si'Mara had stopped throwing things but was still fuming when she heard the door open. Thinking it was one of the Young Bloods who had found her she turned around intending to give the Young Blood a brutal beating for taking her kill.

She was so stunned to see the Ooman she had been hunting and attempted to kill standing in the doorway staring at her she didn't react for a good few moments. Suddenly her shock faded and her anger came back to her stronger than ever and she gave out the mightiest roar of rage that she could muster.

After her short outburst, she roared in fury a second time and this time charged at him intending to smash his face to a bloody pulp with a powerful right hook. The Ooman sidestepped her awkward swing however, and using her own momentum against her, he pivoted his feet and threw her against the wall.

She got up and charged the Ooman again, roaring in fury she launched herself into the air and executed a flying side kick. The Ooman again calmly sidestepped her kick and slammed his elbow into her midsection. She felt

She stared up and tensed in panic as she realized that she was staring at a pair of pure black wrist blades that were held to her throat. She quickly changed her expression from panic to rage, "I am a Young Blood of the Yautja and I'll show know fear" she reminded herself hurriedly.

She glared up at the Ooman seething with anger. Her anger however turned to shock and then confusion as her eyes fixed on the mark that was burned into his left pectoral. She recognized the blooded mark as being the personal mark of the ancients and only arbitrators had ever carried that mark.

"Who are you?" Si'Mara asked in a tone that suggested that she was amazed but never had clue about anything.

Miguel regarded her question with a mixture of amusement and anxiety as he really didn't feel he needed to be attacked again by a female who obviously had anger issues. However he relaxed slightly as he saw that her anger seemed to be disappearing.

When Miguel decided she had calmed down enough he prepared himself to offer his deal "If you promise not to attack me again I'll let you up and we can get to know each other, agreed?" She glared at him menacingly for a moment, but nodded anyway and Miguel retracted his wrist blades. She stood up slowly but as Miguel had hoped she did not try to attack him again.

"So what is your name?" Miguel asked. She gazed at him slightly disdainfully but must have decided she wouldn't be giving away any great secrets. "I am Si'Mara daughter of elder Zi'Gir and Young Blood hunter of the Black Dawn clan, now who are you?"

Miguel hesitated while he thought about how much to tell her, but eventually he decided that a deal was a deal. Besides the elder had already told him she was trustworthy but for some reason he wasn't positive "I am Young Fury and I am the agent of the arbitrators and my prey is the bad bloods". Miguel looked back her and was amused, as well as relieved to discover that a look of complete shock had replaced the one of disdain.

"You hunt bad bloods for the arbitrators?!" Si'Mara said absolutely floored by his statement. Young Fury looked back at her and smiled with an amused expression but nodded. She couldn't believe it; she had never known any Ooman to achieve an honor even remotely close to that level. She knew that there was always a way to find out however. "Prove it" she said in a skeptical retort.

She looked at young fury and saw that he actually grinned "follow me then" he said in a voiced that still sounded amused. Si'Mara almost gasped when he turned around and she saw the massive blooding mark of his clan. Unlike normal clan blooding marks that was done as a small mark on the forehead, his was spread across his entire back.

She followed him until he reached a door and keyed it open. This time Si'Mara did gasp in amazement when she saw his trophies which included two Yautja skulls and Queen but his weapons also caught her eye. She could see an arsenal of not only pure black Yautja weapons but also an arsenal of Ooman weapons.

Miguel looked at Si'Mara as she again looked like she was confused about something. "Why do you have Ooman weapons?" she asked curiously. "Yautja weapons posses a lot of finesse but lack raw power, while human weapons posses a lot of raw power but lack finesse, so each makes up for the other's weakness" Miguel answered quickly.

Si'Mara looked at him again as he went to the door and picking up the Jackhammer, keyed it open. "Where are you going" Si'Mara asked.

"There is a bad blood I have to find and I know where he is" Miguel responded. Si'Mara looked up at him with what looked like hope and admiration in her eyes. "Then I'm coming with you" she said hurriedly.

Miguel stared back wide eyed "WHAT?" he was as taken aback by this statement as Si'Mara had been , "I have wanted to be an arbitrator and hunt the bad bloods since I was a pup, please I must come with you" she replied almost pleadingly.

Miguel stared for a long moment before he replied "no". Miguel tensed again; he knew she wouldn't take kindly to his reply.

Upon hearing this, her anger rose sharply again. "WHY?!" she roared in utter fury. Miguel remained calm as he explained his reasons.

"The reason I hunt as an agent is because I can move among humans without being detected, my stealth is my best asset and I cannot compromise it, so it is probably best if you continued hunting Pyode Amedha for the time being and wait until you can become a regular arbitrator".

Upon hearing this Si'Mara roared in rage again, "you don't understand!!" "You are just like my father and everyone else; no one will ever understand my pain and anger towards the bad bloods, no one!" Collecting her weapons, she stormed down the ramp and off the ship without saying another word.

Miguel couldn't describe what he was feeling as he watched her leave "was it remorse?" he thought to himself distractedly. Only one thing was certain, he had never felt this way about anyone before, yet he still could not place the emotion. Miguel still had a job to do however and he decided that he could figure out what it was later.

Miguel put his human clothes back on and the mounted the weapons he'd been carrying prior to the encounter back on his body. Pulling the jeep out from where he had stashed it he loaded the Jackhammer and its spare ammo drums into the passenger seat. With another grimace he started the jeep and drove in the direction of the north side.

Si'Mara watched from a perch on a nearby building as Young Fury pulled away in an Ooman vehicle and headed north. "You're not going to get rid of me that easily Young Fury" she said as she cracked a sly grin. She wasn't about to let his refusal get in her way.

Covertly she jumped from rooftop to rooftop as she followed Young Fury to wherever he was headed. "No one will keep me from hunting the bad bloods" she thought to herself intently, "No one".

Across the city both arbitrators Young Fury had been traveling with lay dead in a pool of their own neon green blood as Hrak'Ni, flanked by his two brothers stood over the mess smiling evilly, Hrak'Ni had hacked one of the arbitrators to pieces while Si'Lok had burned a gaping hole in the chest of the second. "Two down and who knows how many more to go, unfortunately neither are the one who killed Black Heart" Fo'Sun spoke up uncertainly.

Hrak'Ni's evil smile turned into a scowl almost immediately, "yes unfortunately it seems as though this arbitrator, Gro'Kesh is very elusive but I will not stop until I find him, you can be sure of that". Without another word Hrak'Ni turned, activated his cloak and disappeared as he jumped across the rooftops.

Si'Lok turned to regard his younger brother with a look of concern, "Hrak'Ni's obsession with that treasure and the killer of Black Heart will be the death of him". Fo'Sun looked back at his brother with the same look of consternation he'd been given, "it will be the death of all of us" he said wearily.

Across the world Gro'Kesh watched with satisfaction as the bad blood brother's associate he had been fighting fell to the ground dead when he impaled the bad blood with his combi-stick. "I wonder how Young Fury is faring" he thought fleetingly as he carried the head of the bad blood back to his ship. He had wanted to go hunt with Young Fury to keep an eye on him but as the elder had said he was needed elsewhere.

When he returned to his ship he was surprised to find Gi'Ha pacing outside his ship with a look that suggested he was deeply concerned about something. Gro'Kesh decided it was better to be direct with him instead of playing games. "Gi'Ha what troubles you" he said in an inquiring tone.

Gi'Ha looked up at him and hesitated for a moment before he answered in a voice that sounded uncomfortably distraught for a Yautja like Gi'Ha it made Gro'Kesh think something was seriously wrong, "I'm afraid I have made a grave error in judgment my friend".

"What is that error" Gro'Kesh replied quickly. He was going to get to the bottom of Gi'Ha's peculiar attitude. Moments later he got his answer.

Gi'Ha looked him straight in the eye before replying, "There wasn't just an associate in the city where Young Fury was deployed; all three of the bad blood brothers are there as well". Gi'Ha felt immense pain as Gro'Kesh roared in panic as well as fury and backhanded him across the face.

Gro'Kesh ran back up the ramp of his ship with Gi'Ha following close behind him. "I'm sorry for not saying anything earlier" Gi'Ha replied pleadingly. Gro'Kesh scowled at him as he powered up the engines. "Prove you're sorry by helping me" Gro'Kesh replied gruffly. The ship blasted off and moments later they were in space and preparing to land the ship again.

_Hope everyone had a great holiday no matter what they celebrate. Unfortunately I could not get this chapter out in time for christmas due to a family trip. However I hope you enjoy it all the same and some feedback is always appreciated.  
_


	15. The Associate

The Associate

"Should I have denied her request like that?" Miguel thought to himself as the jeep approached the north side of the city. He shook himself again mentally, "why am I still thinking of her?" he said to himself absentmindedly.

Ever since she had stormed off the ship he had not stopped thinking of her and why she wanted to help him so much. It made his insides writhe like snakes every time he made a new theory. What confused him though was why he was caring so much about it.

"She probably has been dealt a worse blow by the bad bloods then me" Miguel thought sadly as he turned onto a side street that would take him to the sight of the previous massacre. Miguel knew all too well what kind of events had to take place to breed the kind of hatred he could see in her.

"Got to stop thinking about her so much, its making me lose focus" Miguel said to himself intently as he noticed that he was pulling up to the site where the homeless massacre had occurred only 15 hours before. However he couldn't keep the sight of her face from floating around in the back of his mind. It had looked so perfect and beautiful he just couldn't stop remembering it.

As Miguel stepped out of the jeep his senses were alert for the softest sound or the slightest movement. Miguel surveyed the scene to discover that even though the bodies had been removed by the police some hours ago the blood residue had yet to fade away.

Surveying the blood splattering all over the ground and side of a warehouse in that overshadowed the alley, he began to paint a picture in his mind of just how the whole thing had played out.

The bad blood had probably been surveying the group of homeless people from the roof; it would have been a likely spot since Miguel knew from experience and Gro'Kesh's teachings that it was always advantageous to stalk prey from an elevated position.

After the bad decided to kill the group it had probably dropped into their midst visible to instill fear and started butchering them left and right with wrist blades, glaive or whatever the hell it had used.

"Damn Coward" Miguel cursed under his breath. It seemed like a big risk to take in slaughtering all these people so why did it do it? Miguel pondered this until the answer fell on him like a ton of bricks. This was the associate's hiding place. Flipping on his sunglasses Miguel sat back in the jeep changing his vision modes periodically.

"Guess I'll wait" Miguel thought to himself, he was frustrated but he reminded himself that part of being a hunter of anything was that patience was a very important virtue.

Hrak'Ni stood by impatiently in front of the massive doors as he watched his brother Fo'Sun work vigorously with his wrist computer. Hrak'Ni was slightly disgruntled that he had to wait so long. He had been yearning to kill yet another arbitrator but Fo'Sun had insisted that it would only cause all the arbitrators on the planet to converge on them.

Hrak'Ni finally couldn't wait any longer as he turned his gaze to Fo'Sun.

"What could possibly be taking so long?!" Hrak'Ni roared. Fo'Sun looked up at his brother slightly nervously but he kept hi composure.

"I have tried everything I can think of but there is no way through the doors without Black Heart's seal" Fo'Sun replied curtly. Hrak'Ni again looked angrily at his brother. "So what now?" Hrak'Ni asked in a frustrated tone. Fo'Sun looked up at him knowingly.

"We must hunt down the one who possesses the seal, without it we will never get through" Fo'Sun replied weakly.

As Hrak'Ni was walking down the abandoned rail lines to the exit into the city he heard running feet and turned around quickly to see Fo'Sun running swiftly to catch up with him. "Hrak'Ni!" Fo'Sun called out as he approached.

"I have discovered what the legendary artifact behind the doors is!" he said breathlessly. Interested Hrak'Ni watched as Fo'Sun punched up a holograph on his wrist computer. Hrak'Ni froze "Holy C'jit!"

Finally after a few hours of staking out the place Miguel spotted an uncloaked Yautja jump onto the roof of the warehouse. Switching to neural mode Miguel scanned the Yautja and got the info he was looking for.

The Yautja's name was Lo'Sir and he had been wanted for the destruction of a Yautja holy temple. The information further revealed that he had close affiliations with the bad blood brothers. Miguel watched the bad blood until he disappeared into the warehouse.

"Show Time" Miguel said quietly to himself. Slinging the Jackhammer over his shoulder he moved quietly to the warehouse gate that was positioned on the front side of the warehouse. As he neared the front gate he noticed a smaller gate off to the side of the warehouse.

"I'd probably give him a bigger surprise if I came out of there". It probably wouldn't give too much advantage but it had to be better than walking right up to the front door and knocking. As Miguel approached he noticed that it was padlocked shut. Undaunted Miguel extended his wrist blades and cut through the lock as though it was butter.

Miguel flipped on his tech vision mode and scanned the warehouse. There were construction tools everywhere hinting that he building was currently or had recently been renovated.

Peering around Miguel spotted Lo'Sir on the third level. Luckily Lo'Sir was so busy admiring his new trophies that he didn't even notice Miguel. He was so inattentive for a Yautja it made Miguel shake his head in disgust.

"Shit; He's a fugitive and he hadn't even noticed me coming in!" Miguel thought exasperatedly. Slinging the Jackhammer off his back he settled it against his shoulder in a ready position as he silently crept up a set of stairs that led to the upper levels.

Miguel had seen the Mk3A1 before on the street once but never actually used one. He had deeply admired how the shotgun could fire off twelve gauge rounds like a machine gun.

As he stepped on to the second floor he looked up and saw that Lo'Sir had still not noticed him even though Miguel was right behind him except one level below. With careful aim he deployed and threw one of his shurikens at the catwalk's supports.

He heard a sudden roar off rage filled the warehouse. He looked up and saw Lo'Sir fall from the overhanging ledge as it collapsed and land on the second level catwalk with a crash. Miguel tensed as the angry Yautja stood to face him and extended his wrist blades menacingly.

Miguel cracked an evil grin "DUMB MOVE!!!" Miguel shouted as his finger pulled the trigger and held it there.

The Jackhammer roared to life again and again, Miguel could see as four, five, six 12 gauge slugs as they smacked into the flesh of the bad blood. Wounded and knowing it would useless to try and attack through that amount of fire power Lo'Sir turned and started to run back to his exit on the roof. Miguel cursed as he discarded the empty ammo drum from the shotgun. Reaching for a fresh ammo drum he slammed it into the weapon and took off as fast as he could after the bad blood

Lo'Sir ran as fast as he could towards the roof, unlike some Yautja he knew when to fight and when to retreat. When he reached the roof however his flight was brought up short as he ran head long into an extended combi-stick that stuck through his right hamstring like a kabob and sent him crashing to the floor in a roar of pain.

Miguel reached the roof moments later and saw Lo'Sir sprawled on the ground with another figure in Yautja armor standing over him. Acting quickly Miguel again brought the jackhammer into a firing position and tightened his finger on the trigger.

But when he deactivated his vision mode and saw who was now standing over the fallen bad blood he lowered his weapon. "I didn't figure that you would be so easily dissuaded Si'Mara" he said smirking.

Si'Mara smiled back at him but as she was wearing her mask it didn't make much of a difference. "I am renown among my clan for stubbornness Young Fury" she replied in a tone that was meant to intimidate. Young Fury however shrugged and replied "obviously" in an amused voice that suggested he was anything but intimidated.

Si'Mara's gaze shifted from Miguel to the bad blood that was still alive yet sprawled on the floor, unable to run. "Should I kill this bad blood?" she asked looking at Young Fury with great eagerness.

Young Fury however shook his head "No, I need to interrogate him first, would you mind holding him here for a moment while I get something to make him cooperative?" Si'Mara cracked a grin and shook her head vigorously.

As she watched Young Fury jump through the skylight into the warehouse below she felt a strange sensation. She had disliked Oomans ever since her mother died. She had begun to view them from that time on as weak and pathetic creatures that deserved nothing but contempt from the Yautja that hunted them. As she looked at the skylight that Young Fury had disappeared through however she felt an emotion that she could not name and hadn't felt in a long time, but it was definitely not disgust.

"What is it about this Ooman that makes me feel, different?" she thought fleetingly but quickly shook herself, banishing the thought. She had to admit however this Ooman was unlike any male she had ever met, Ooman or Yautja.

She had been around Yautja males quite a lot since she had spent much of her life hunting with her father's hunting clan. She deeply disliked the fact that practically all of them were show-offs and had far too much pride. Unlike many other Yautja females she had despised this characteristic. Normally when a Yautja male had attempted to impress her with his trophy collection she left immediately and didn't give them a second thought.

This Ooman hunter had taken trophies yet had only showed them to her because she wanted proof of his story and it was indeed quite a story. He obviously had kept his exploits to himself as well because surely other clans would have known about him if he simply showed off his trophies to every hunter he came across.

The Yautja that she pinned on the ground started to writhe in an attempt to get free but she placed her combi-stick to his throat and he lay still again. "Don't even try it" she said coldly.

Miguel looked through each of the construction tools carefully until he finally found what he decided would be a good choice, a reciprocating saw that was powered by an onboard power pack eliminating the need to plug it in.

Powering up the saw he sliced through a metal pipe and decided that for all intensive purposes, it would work just fine. Moving with the same swiftness that he had chased the bad blood Miguel made his way up the set of stairs that led back to the roof.

As Miguel reached the roof he was relieved to see Si'Mara still standing there holding down the bad blood with one foot and her combi-stick. Walking over to the fallen Yautja, Miguel turned on his ear translator and powered up the saw as he began his interrogation.

"Ok Lo'Sir I've got a few questions for you, and if you refuse to answer them I'm afraid I will be forced to take drastic measures" Miguel said, his voice wasn't threatening but it also held an unmistakably icy edge.

Miguel looked down at Lo'Sir and their eyes locked. "I won't tell you anything you stinking Ooman piece C'jit" Lo'Sir said in defiance. Miguel stared back icily at the fallen bad blood "fine, if that's the way you want play, then I'll play that way" Miguel said as he again powered up the saw. "First, where are your bosses?" Miguel asked calmly.

Lo'Sir stared back at him and grinned "you didn't hear me the first time you pauk-de Ooman? I'm not telling you C'jit" Miguel sighed as he knew this was going to take a while. Miguel powered up the saw, plunged it into the bad blood's side in a non-vital area and left it there sawing away at the flesh and making Lo'Sir scream out in pain so loudly Miguel swore it would have shattered glass.

"Gonna tell me yet or do I have to keep going?" Miguel yelled over the bad blood's continuing grunts of pain as he pulled the saw out of Lo'Sir's body.

Lo'Sir looked up pleadingly and his shoulders slumped as the defiance went out him. "Their here, all three of them, in this Ooman city, I'm not sure where because we separated" the bad blood's words emerged as a pained choke.

"Thank you" Miguel said wearily, he was shocked at what he had just heard but remained calm and maintained his composure. "One more question, what do your bosses, the bad blood brothers want with this?" Miguel asked pulling out Black Heart's pendent. Both the bad blood and Si'Mara let out loud gasps.

Lo'Sir's eyes grew wide with amazement "you are the one who killed Black Heart?!" he choked in utter amazement. Miguel thought he could see Si'Mara stiffen in anger, amazement, and admiration all at once out of the corner of his eye at this statement but he kept his gaze on the bad blood. "Yes, now why do they want it?" Miguel continued.

"They found something under the city, and the need it to obtain whatever it was, that's all I know" Lo'Sir choked out in pain.

Miguel looked down at Lo'Sir's pleading eyes and could tell that that was all he knew. "Guess I'd better start looking for new leads, time to visit Benelli again" Miguel thought disgruntled.

"I thank you for your help Lo'Sir, you may die an honorable death now" Miguel said as he looked at Si'Mara, "do you wish to do the honors" he asked plaintively, Si'Mara nodded eagerly as she positioned her combi-stick. "Thank you for making my death an honorable one" Lo'Sir choked out in deep gratitude.

Miguel watched coolly as in one fluent motion Si'Mara plunged her combi-stick into the bad blood killing him instantly. As Miguel looked back at Si'Mara he decided that she should be allowed to hunt the bad bloods with him, only one thing still bothered him however and he had to get to the bottom of it before she began helping him.

"If you desire to hunt them with me I only have one question, why do you hate the bad bloods so much?" Miguel asked thoughtfully.

Si'Mara looked at him and grinned broadly, "Okay, if it allows me to hunt them with you, then I will tell you my story" she said, her tone sounded indifferent but Miguel could tell that she had been dying to tell this story to someone for a long time as he sat on the roof of the warehouse to listen. "I would be very interested to here your story and your reasons for hating them" Miguel said interested.

"So would I" Fo'Sun thought to himself as he magnified the sights on his mask to get a better focus on the two. He hid himself on the roof of an adjacent building as he bunkered down to listen. "So this is the one who killed Black Heart, Hrak'Ni is going to go insane when I tell him about this twist" as he continued to ponder this shocking turn of events.

_The next chapter is finished!!, I hope you have enjoyed, However I have sadly run into desperate personal/ family issues and may be forced to stop writing my stories, however if they mean anything to anyone, I will try my hardest to get past them and continue writing my stories. _


	16. Origins of Si'Mara pt1

_I'm back with another chapter, I realize that I can't let my problems get in the way of my writing. Anyway this is a small 3 chapter side story that is the same story Si'Mara told Miguel on the warehouse roof. I decided to include this story with the main story because later on some of it will apply to the Main story. _

Origins of Si'Mara, part 1

Year: 1998

Location: Somewhere outside of Kosovo, Yugoslavia

Mila tensed in mild anxiety and excitement as she felt the pickup truck she had been riding in come to a stop. Moving as quickly as they could she and the rest of the men piled out of the back of several trucks and took up hidden ambush positions in the hills around one of the main roads that led from Serbia to Kosovo.

Taking up a prone position in a cluster of thick bushes on the elevated slope of one of the hills, Mila steadied the bipod of her RPK light machine gun, loaded a snail magazine, and cocked the weapon.

As she sighted the weapon she flinched slightly as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she stared into the face of U.S Special Forces Lieutenant Frank Hitchcomb. "You're a little jumpy Sergeant, got something on your mind?" he asked in a slightly playful, slightly concerned tone.

"No Sir!" he she replied in a forceful retort as she went back to adjusting the sights of her machine gun and fixed them on the road. "Just keep sharp without jumping the gun, we don't need them knowing we're here until after we mow them down, and remember don't shoot unless I shoot first" he said as he prepped an RPG and left her in a hurry to go make sure that the other gorilla ambush points were in position and ready.

"How did I ever get myself into this shit?" Mila thought incredulously. With her eyes downcast she sank into deep thought and began to sift through her memories of exactly how she had gotten to where she was now.

She was not a native Yugoslavian, but an American of Yugoslavian descent. Her parents had emigrated from Yugoslavia to escape the iron grip of communist dictator Josip Broz Tito. Her mother had died giving birth to her and her heart broken father had passed away a short time later, leaving her to be raised in an orphanage. She had longed for a family since then and had finally got it in the form of the U.S military.

She had joined the U.S Special Forces in 1996 when she was eighteen and even though she was only 5'7, she had proved herself to be good enough as a fighting soldier to be assigned to combat duty, this made her perhaps the first woman in combat but the military brass kept it quiet. She was grateful for their cover-up of her success as a combat soldier actually, because it seemed to be a gesture that they thought of her as a real soldier and not as a military spectacle.

When she got out of training she hadn't been expected to be taken seriously and had been surprised to find out that her first assignment as a combat soldier had been a real one. She and a platoon of fellow Black Ops soldiers had assisted the Russian Spetsnaz in carrying out operations against Chechen rebels at the end of the first Chechen war. She had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the respect of those who fought alongside her for her valor and bravery during these operations.

From then on she had fought in a variety of small political wars and ethnic clashes in Africa, the Middle East, and Israel gaining experience, skill and prestige as she went. When she had been asked to volunteer to fight with and teach the KLA gorillas how to fight in Kosovo she couldn't refuse.

So here she was back in her homeland of war torn Yugoslavia, hidden in a bush with a light machinegun in hand and ready to kill Serbian soldiers with the KLA rebels, she tensed again except this time it was out of rage instead of fear. When she so much as had even the faintest thought of the Serbian army she always tensed and grew hot with anger.

The Serbian dominated government's "ethnic cleansing" of Yugoslavia's other ethnic groups always filled her with the primal anger that had been a primary driving force behind her frontline involvement with the KLA instead of just doing training duty with them. It had gotten some of the small minority of backward thinking KLA gorillas riled up because she was women in combat and they thought her to be weak.

This small outcry of chauvinists had been silenced when she kicked the ass of their lead advocate in a fist fight.

"That obtained their respect and admiration" she thought to herself slyly as she again looked down the sights of her weapon. It was true though, ever since that day the KLA gorillas and the rest her Special Forces unit had affectionately called her "Scorpion".

When she had asked why they called her this, her CO simply sat back and said that "you may be small sergeant but behind your small size you pack a deadly sting". She had been grinning for weeks on end after this exchange.

Mila tensed in excitement as she heard the rumble of many vehicle engines in the distance coming closer and closer. There was no doubt in any of their minds that this was the Serbian army and they were coming in force.

Weir adjusted the sights of the RPG as he aimed it on the road. He had just finished checking the remaining gorilla positions to confirm that they were ready before taking up his own ambush position under a cluster of trees. "Here we go!" he thought to himself vigorously as he watched the first of the Serbian army trucks come into to view way down the road.

Zi'Gir had been watching the armed groups of Oomans assemble on the hills for awhile now with some confusion. "Why do they hide like cowards?" he thought to himself slightly disgruntled. It had been a long while since he and the pack was traveling with had found decent prey for trophies and he didn't want the skulls of cowards.

Every member of the hunting pack was all invisible and loosely assembled around the hill where they had taken refuge some time ago when the group of Oomans finally stopped. Suddenly Zi'Gir heard the sounds of large numbers of Ooman vehicles approaching. He watched interestedly as the Oomans in the trees prepared for battle.

He had forbidden the pack to hunt Oomans as they were all unblooded and they were only here to observe Ooman fighting habits and try their skills on lesser earth prey in the process.

Zi'Gir was clan elder and a very attentive Yautja, however his attention had been so focused on the Oomans coming down the path he failed to see that his Unbloodeds had moved much closer the other Oomans positioned in the trees and prepped their weapons. Unknown to all of the Yautja however, the Unbloodeds had stepped into the middle of a kill zone.

Hitchcomb's fingers tightened on the trigger of his RPG as he zeroed in on the battle vehicle in the front of the convoy and prepared to initiate the ambush.

From what he could see it looked to be about twenty fighting vehicles that included everything from half-tracks to pick-up trucks and 10 flatbed trucks used for carrying supplies. Rallied loosely around the convoy was about fifty to sixty infantry soldiers all armed with some kind of automatic weapon.

"Surprise" Frank shouted as he pulled the trigger of his RPG. The front combat vehicle flew as the blast propelled it thirty feet into the air. Moments later a blaze of muzzle flashes erupted from the hills as lethal lead poured down on the Serbian troops below as they scattered for cover and fired back with their own barrage of fire.

Mila let out a great whoop of exhilaration as she poured lead into the Serbian vehicles as troops. She was always one who liked fighting for the oppressed and she was finally getting a chance.

Mila shifted her RPK to the left and let out a burst of fire that brought down a pair of Serbian troops that had begun to advance up her hill. "How you do like" she shouted with enthusiasm. Her excitement quickly turned to fear as she realized that the gunner of the 50. Cal on one of the combat vehicles had targeted her. "Shit!" she cursed as she waited for the end to come.

Suddenly an RPG round came out of nowhere and caused the truck to go up in flames. Looking over to the opposite hill she could see Hitchcomb loading another round into his RPG. "You owe me one!" he called over to her smiling she looked down the sights of her machine gun and continued firing.

Zi'Gir watched the battle amazed. Yautja weren't use to fighting a full scale war as their feuds often ended with challenges. Suddenly he noticed that his pack of Unbloodeds had disappeared from the hill.

"C'jit" he cursed as he began scanning the hills for his wayward pack. He spotted the three of them on the adjoining hill preparing to ambush one of the dug in Oomans. Activating his cloak he took off towards the pack as fast as he could. "I'll kill them all if they interfere" he thought viciously as he tore across the valley towards the hill.

Although they had killed more than half of the Serbian infantry and nearly all of the combat vehicles the operation had turned very ugly as the Serbians unveiled a trick of their own. The flatbed trucks had been carrying more troops instead of war supplies and despite their casualties they were still pushing forward.

Frank let loose another rocket round that sent one of their troop transports up in smoke as it was in the process of deploying. He watched intently as the troops still onboard were incinerated. Loading up another rocket round he was surprised that the Serbians were nearly on top of them.

Quickly dropping the RPG and drawing his Beretta automatic pistol he fired off two shots that brought down the closest advancing soldier. "Cover me Yuri!" he shouted to the man a few feet away. The man ran over to him quickly and let out a burst of fire from his AK-47 bringing down two more soldiers attempting to ambush them.

Bringing up his RPG he aimed for the last of the combat vehicles. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest that caused him to lurch backwards as he fired the weapon. As darkness began to overtake him he realized that his wayward shot was headed towards Mila's position. "I'm sorry Mila, please forgive me" he thought Fleetingly before darkness overtook him.

Mila sighed deeply; the operation had been a failure. Despite the fact that the Serbian troops had taken three times as many casualties as the KLA gorillas she could tell that they were pursuing the remaining gorilla fighters as they retreated back over the hills.

Suddenly she tensed in fear as she realized that an RPG round was coming at right at her at maximum speed. Instinctively she ducked her head and the RPG round flew over her head.

Suddenly a loud roar of pain erupted from behind her and she was spattered with a neon green liquid. She turned around as quick as she could and was just in time to witness some kind of large armored creature get hurled backwards by the rocket and was blown to pieces as the rocket exploded.

To her dismay, she saw that the creature had two companions both were armored, wearing strange masks, and looking just as mean and deadly. Seizing her RPK she pointed it at the first one who was so stunned by the abrupt death of his companion he didn't react in time.

Mila let loose a hail storm of lead and the second creature fell to the ground after being struck numerous times in the head, chest and abdomen. "Tough little suckers" she thought angrily as she shifted the weapon to the last of the creature.

This one came to his senses much quicker than the last one however and before Mila could complete her maneuver a pair of blades sprang from its wrist and it sliced her weapon's barrel clean off. The creature followed up its cut with a brutal kick that sent Mila flying.

Mila coughed as she got to her feet and tensed again as she realized that the creature was coming at her with its arm cocked back and ready to deliver a lethal blow with the blades on its wrist.

With swiftness that would impress the greatest martial artist her hands flew to her sides and pulled out a pair of experimental ASP collapsible batons that police were starting to use. Holding on tightly to the batons she flung her arms down and away from her causing the batons to quickly slide out and lock in place.

As the creature attempted to swing its blades downward she put up both batons in an X-block, catching the creature's arm. She could barely hold the force of the strike but somehow she stopped it.

Using one of her batons she shoved the creature's arm out of the way and used the other one to strike its abdomen as hard as she could. The creature let out a roar of pain confirming that Mila's hit had made its mark.

The creature was not out however as Mila quickly discovered. The creature quickly got over its pain it got up and attempted to backhand her. Moving with such agility that it surprised her; Mila rolled under the blow and smashed her batons full force into the creature's ankle.

The creature dropped to one knee with a grunt of pain. Seizing her opportunity she grabbed a knife the size of her forearm off one of the dead creatures and charged. Her move caught the creature off guard and she rammed the weapon through the creature's throat. The creature collapsed onto the ground and didn't move again.

Suddenly she heard a series of electrical sounding beeps. Looking over she saw that the creature she had shot had activated something on his wrist before it choked and lay still. Mila didn't know what it was but she could bet that it wasn't good.

Mila ran as fast as she could over the hill to where one of the KLA pick-up trucks was parked in case they had to make a quick exit. She half expected the Serbian troops to be bearing down on her; however the Serbians had been so busy chasing the retreating KLA they didn't notice her.

Mila started up the truck and tore away from the combat zone. Five minutes later she could see a blaze of blue light in her rear view mirror. She grimaced as she realized that it had come from the valley where she had just been.

Zi'Gir moved as quickly as he could as he followed the Ooman female. He had been impressed to say the least. He had rarely seen an Ooman kill one Yautja much less two even though he was an elder with thousands of hunts under his belt.

When the Unblooded had readied his plasma explosive Zi'Gir knew he had to get out of there fast so he decided to kill two birds with one stone by staying alive and satisfying his curiosity by following the Ooman female.

The Ooman was also a small female which impressed him even more. Ooman females were often weak and afraid, rarely had he encountered female Ooman warriors. "C'jit, how am I going to keep this pace!" he thought disgruntled. He knew that if she kept up that speed with that vehicle, eventually he would have to rest and lose sight of her.

His luck held however as the front of the vehicle began smoking and moments later it screeched to a stop. Zi'Gir watched intently as he observed the Ooman exit the vehicle curse and looked around as if it could sense him. "This Ooman is indeed unique among her kind" he thought briefly before turning his head to get a better view of the Ooman. He decided that he should reveal himself to her sooner or later after all; she had killed most of his hunting pack.

Mila continued to look at the dense forest surrounding her with suspicion. She just couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. "Can't let my suspicions get to me, I'm already up shit creek and from the looks of it I just lost the paddle" she thought angrily.

She was between a rock and a hard place and she knew it. Her flight from the valley had taken her deeper into Serbia not Kosovo and the Serbian Army was probably sweeping the woods for the remaining KLA. Suddenly she heard the leaves rustle off to her right. Careful to make it seem as if she hadn't noticed she walked back to the truck and took out a standard AK-47 and cocked it.

In a sudden motion she swung it towards the bush where she had heard the rustling leaves and let out a burst of fire. The bullets rustled the leaves as they impacted the bush. "Guess I just imagined it" she thought hopefully.

Suddenly a spinning disk came out of nowhere and sawed her weapon in two. She spun around and saw a similar creature materialize and approach her. Moving quickly she flung out her arms and extended her batons. This particular creature looked somewhat different than the others.

His dreadlocks were graying; also the ease and dexterity in his motions suggested that he was a far more experienced fighter than those she had fought and killed earlier. She prepared to fight to the death but to her amazement the creature put his hands up in what looked to be a gesture of appeal. She was suspicious but she collapsed her batons and placed them back on her hips.

Suddenly to her complete astonishment the creature spoke to her in english. "Ooman you fight well and I seek to honor you for accomplishments". It sounded sincere and for some reason unknown to her she knew she could trust this creature.

"Who and what are you?" Mila asked curiously.

"I am Zi'Gir, elder of the Yautja clan Black Dawn and who are you Ooman?" he responded proudly thumping his armored chest. Mila hesitated for a moment before finally saying "my name is Mila". "Meee laaa" he repeated slowly. "Close enough" she replied jovially. For some unknown reason she felt that whatever this being was it was honorable enough to know her name.

Suddenly Mila heard the sound of vehicles approaching, many of them, Zi'Gir must have heard them too because he cocked his head in the direction. "Serbian Army!!" she whispered exasperatedly. Grabbing a Draganov sniper rifle from the passanger seat of her truck and strapping several bricks of C4 to the gas tank she ran into a forested hill area adjacent to the road as fast as she could.

Possessing the keen sense that whatever was coming wasn't friendly Zi'Gir activated his cloak and took off after her. "This Ooman is battle hardened!!" Zi'Gir thought incredulously as he observed a number of prevalent scars that criss crossed her body. He didn't know why exactly; but he was gaining respect for this Ooman far quicker than he expected.

Moments later Mila and Zi'Gir reached a small clearing on the forested hill that gave Mila an excellent sniping view of the road. Nestling the rifle to her shoulder Mila looked down the scope as she watched four Serbian army troop carrier trucks and a combat vehicle pull up and stop near her abandoned vehicle.

"Come on a little closer" Mila thought to herself as she watched several troops rallying around to search her vehicle. Suddenly one of them turned to scan the horizon, and spotted Mila. When he began to shout out a warning to his comrades Mila fired her sniper rifle.

The bullet took the man in the head and he crumpled to the ground, however the sound of her rifle alerted his compatriots and they wheeled round to fire on her position. Mila pressed the detonator on the truck and it exploded causing the troops rallied around it to fly into the air and be engulfed in flames. It was only then did she realize to her horror that they had only been the advance force in a much larger convoy containing dozens of troop trucks.

The flatbed trucks were off loading dozens if not hundreds of soldiers as the combat vehicle gunners attempted to draw a bead on her. Stealing herself to show no fear she aimed her sniper rifle and dropped one of the gunners.

Zi'Gir aimed his shoulder cannon at one of the armed Ooman vehicles and fired. The bolt tore the vehicle causing it to explode. Throwing caution to the wind Zi'Gir repeatedly fired his shoulder cannon at the advancing Oomans who seemed confused because they could not locate his cloaked form but disciplined enough to ignore it as they kept advancing on their position. "C'jit! They just keep coming" Zi'Gir thought thoroughly frustrated as he continued to rain down plasma bolts on the advancing Oomans.

As Mila aimed fired and brought down another advancing soldier she knew it was only a matter of time until they were overrun. As bullets rained down on their position she called out to Zi'Gir over the loud reports of weapons being fired. "Zi'Gir we have to get out of here!"

Zi'Gir dropped from a perch that he had taken in a tree, uncloaked and quickly beckoned Mila to follow him. He moved so quickly that Mila couldn't keep up and she could tell that the Serbians were closing in on her. "He's disappearing in front of me and they are coming into view behind me" she sighed sadly as she prepared to give herself up for death.

Suddenly Zi'Gir ran back to her, picked her up and began running as fast as he could towards a clearing almost a 500 yards away. "Where are we going?" Mila asked exasperatedly.

"That is where my ship is hidden and where we can escape. He closed the distance to the clearing in moments. Setting Mila down she watched in awe as a space ship the size of a B52 bomber materialized in front of her with its ramp descending 20 yards away. "Let's get the hell out of here" Mila said quickly to Zi'Gir who grinned as he began to make his way to the ship.

However before he could get to the ship Zi'Gir howled in agony and fell to the ground neon green blood spurting from his leg. Mila turned and realized that the Serbians had caught up with them and dozens troops along with several combat vehicles that were small enough to fit were now pouring out of the woods. Mila aimed, fired and picked off the gunner of the closest combat vehicle.

Zi'Gir prepped the explosive on his wrist comp as he watched Mila take out two more of the advancing Oomans. Her posture in battle, her extraordinarily fluent motions, and well defined battle scars blazed with an unknown beauty that he could not even begin to put into words. He was only grieved that such a warrior would have to die with him. As the count down started he tossed the explosive and waited for the end.

As Mila brought down another soldier advancing she was amazed that they had lasted this long with the amount of lead that was being thrown at them. Suddenly she heard the same shrill whining that had preceded the blast in the valley. Looking at Zi'Gir she saw him toss the explosive towards the Serbians and lie down on the snow as if waiting for death.

"You're not quitting on me now!" she yelled out in an authoritative voice as she seized him under his arms and began to pull. Realizing what she was doing Zi'Gir used his good leg to push himself along and even though it was painstaking they made it into the ship. As Mila helped Zi'Gir into the ship he began to fire up the engines and the ship began o levitate. "They're approaching too rapidly I can't get off the ground before they will be on top of me!" Zi'Gir called out to Mila

"I'll take care of those vehicles just get us out of here" Mila shouted back. "Main engines should be ready in thirty seconds!" he replied quickly.

Moving as swiftly as she could Mila ran back to the still open ramp way and saw two large snow buggies with mounted machine guns streaking towards the ship. Bringing her sniper rifle of her back she aimed and fired twice dropping both drivers. The gunners got out and attempted to flee but she down both of them with two more well placed shots. Suddenly the ramp began closing and she knew it was time to leave.

As entered the cockpit Zi'Gir called out to her, "hold on to something!!" Strapping her self in the Co-Pilot seat she felt her whole body jerk as the ship rocketed out of Earth's atmosphere and away from the planet.

Meanwhile the Serbian troops cursed at the fact that they had let such a valuable prize escape. They were suddenly distracted however when one of them shouted out a brief warning before all of them were engulfed in a massive blue light.

Out in space Zi'Gir turned to Mila. "You saved my life great warrior and I am ever indebted to you" he said courteously. "Don't mention it" she said as she laughed slightly, reaching up she ran her fingers over his dreadlocks; they were sleek and extraordinarily smooth to the touch. "Still it's too bad though, I don't really have any family and many of my cohorts have died in battle" she said sadly.

Turning his head towards her he decided that she would be just as great a hunter as any that could ever bring honor too his clan. "Would you be willing then to stay me and my clan Mila, to hunt and fight beside me?" he asked slowly and almost hopefully.

Mila turned her head and regarded him for a moment that seemed as long as an eternity before; finally she nodded and gave her reply "yes I would be honored to fight at your side". Zi'Gir felt joy as he had never felt since completing his Chiva come over him at her response. Zi'Gir trilled happily as he piloted the ship that moved through space like a shooting star onwards towards the location where his clan ship would be.

_I hope you have enjoyed this chapter of my side story. Please Review as reviews either positive or negative fuel my drive to write._

_ Also if there are any Serbians who are offended by this, Please don't be mad at me, I'm just making up a fictional scenario out of what was a real conflict  
_


	17. Origins of Si'Mara pt2

_I'm back again at last sorry about the wait time but the time I have been able to take out of my day for writing has become very constrained. Anyway here is the 2nd part of my 3 part side story. If this chapter seems to move fast it is because I am anxious to get back to writing the main story. Enjoy!! see you next time when I finish my side story. _

Origin of Si'Mara, part 2

As Mila caught sight of the clan ship for the first time out of one of the view ports she was in awe. It was so big that hundreds of Yautja must live inside it. As she turned to look at Zi'Gir he gestured proudly at the ship.

"The home of my clan, warrior and eta alike we are one of the strongest clans" he said swelling with even more pride than before causing Mila to chuckle at him amusedly; his tremendous show of pride in his clan made him sound slightly comical.

He had removed his mask early on in the journey to his clan and while Mila was slightly taken aback by his facial appearance she got over it very quickly.

Mila stood before the ramp exit with a trace of apprehension evident on her features. Even though she was next to Zi'Gir she was still nervous about meeting his clan. Apparently some of them had a reputation for being ruthless hunters of humans.

While she had gotten over their appearance very quickly; their unmistakable bloodlust would be much harder and would take much more work to get over.

As the ship docked she felt Zi'Gir put his hand on her shoulder as if comforting her.

"I understand why you would be reluctant to meet my clan, do not worry as I said before I am the elder and you are under my protection" he said in a soothing tone.

Comforted by his remark Mila nonetheless fingered one of her ASP batons with mild apprehension as she heard the ramp hiss and lower itself revealing a fair sized crowd of Yautja that had gathered to greet the elder.

Zi'Gir watched as one of the closest Yautja who looked fairly young approached him and Mila giving him the salute of respect as he came to stand before him.

"Respected elder we are very pleased to see you alive again yet we are all curious as to why exactly you have brought this Ooman back with you instead of your Unblooded pack" the young Yautja said in a voice that was half curios and half inquisitive.

Shifting his gaze from the Yautja in front of him he turned to face the crowd and spoke in a loud voice so that all could here. "This Ooman killed all of the unblooded warriors traveling in my pack and she also saved my life so my life is indebted to her" pausing Zi'Gir listened to the whispered mutterings of disbelief and denial.

"Anyone who disrespects her will answer to me, now leave!" Zi'Gir continued in a forceful tone which he hoped would make the crowd in the docking bay.

As Zi'Gir finished his short speech he could hear the crowd fall quiet and then slowly disperse. The Young Yautja that had stood before them again gave the salute of respect to Zi'Gir before leaving with the rest of the crowd.

Turning back to Mila he was slightly amused to find her staring at him looking slightly confused but swiftly he remembered that she couldn't speak Yautja.

"What did you tell them?" Mila asked tentatively

"I told them that you are to be respected while you are here, that is all" Zi'Gir said grinning slightly as he continued to observe Mila. He still couldn't explain why but he was transfixed; looking at her for several before she finally broke the silence.

"Damn I'm tired you got anyplace to sleep on this ship?" she asked as she failed to stifle a huge yawn. Their meeting and the ensuing battle to escape had robbed her of much of her strength.

"Yes follow me" Zi'Gir said as he turned and began walking towards something that looked like some kind of levitating platform. Moving swiftly Mila followed him closely as they stepped on to the platform and Zi'Gir activated it.

As the platform lifted upward Zi'Gir turned to look at Mila again. The firmness of her figure, the shaping of her battle scars had somehow mysteriously captured him in a way none of his mates ever could. Mila remained oblivious to what Zi'Gir was doing however as her thoughts dwelled on getting some rest.

He was finally forced to stop staring at her as the platform slowed to a stop. Stepping off the platform he turned to his left and headed down a nearby corridor with Mila hot on heels.

After proceeding down the corridor for a short distance before he stopped before a door and keyed it open before turning back to Mila. "This shall be where you rest for the time being I hope to see you again when you woken" Zi'Gir said before turning to walk back down the corridor.

As Mila stepped inside the room she looked around briefly. It was simply furnished although there were several depictions of Yautja in combat carved into the walls. Walking over to the bed Mila shed her clothing as she went and placed her ASP batons next to the bed.

Her feet seemed to move as if they had a mind of their own because her mind was on Zi'Gir. He was so strong; yet very gentle at the same time as he had displayed while carrying her way from the Serbian troops back on earth. Mila had felt a strong allure to the elder Yautja and cared very deeply about his wound heeling.

"Why am I constantly thinking of him" she thought wildly "I don't yearn for his company do I, do I want him?" these thoughts continued to race through her mind as she made her way to the bed. When she lay down on the bed however she was instantly drowned in sleep and banished all thoughts from her mind.

As Zi'Gir made his way towards his quarters after administering a medicomp on himself; his mind was fixated on the image of Mila. Her beauty; as radiant as a sun and cool as a moon, her battle scars as well formed as the greatest of art pieces and the scent of a sweetness so great he craved to taste it for himself.

When he reached his room and keyed it open a hauntingly familiar voice reached his ears. "Oh Paya; why does she have to be here now?!" Zi'Gir thought exasperatedly. He looked over and sure enough saw Hu'Tare first among his mates lying on his bed.

Females didn't generally travel among the hunting clans while raising young on the home world so the fact that she was here surprised him and would make actions towards his desire for Mila much more tenuous.

"It's great to see you again my mate!" she said enthusiastically "should I give you the ultimate pleasure tonight as a reward for returning alive with your honor!" Zi'Gir smiled to her slightly before shaking his head slightly. "I am already exhausted from my journey and cannot handle you tonight as much as I would like to.

Hu'Tare sat bolt upright; suddenly furious. "Does it have anything to do with that worthless Ooman you brought to the clan with you?" she asked angrily.

"No I owe her my life and she is an honorable warrior; I did not bring her here to make her my mate" Zi'Gir said in a defiant tone but privately he wondered if it was true. "I am only exhausted and desire rest" Zi'Gir continued tentatively.

Slowly Hu'Tare rose from his bed and walked slowly to the door pausing briefly to caress his shoulders. "I believe you my mate; please rest so I can pleasure you later" she said in a seductive tone as she turned and left the room.

As the door closed with a hiss he turned back to his bed and lay down on it however he could not sleep as his mind was still on Mila. It took only a few seconds more of thinking about it for him to realize that what he had told Hu'Tare and what he had been telling himself was a lie.

He wanted Mila as a mate; almost desperately but how could he ever come to tell her that. Zi'Gir thoughts continued to worry him and despite his best efforts he could not get to sleep. Slowly he got up and walked out the door; he just couldn't take it any longer he had to have her now.

(Dream Sequence)

Mila fired a burst from her M16 and watched as the man charging at her fell with machete in hand. As her squad branched out to scour the burning village for anymore gorilla forces she sighed sadly.

The war between the Liberian government and rebel forces had brought much suffering towards the innocent people that came between them. Both sides had been known to commit atrocities and it was part of their job to stop the situation.

Still as she looked around at the massacre that had just taken place her mind snapped. It was just too much. The bodies of the dead had been mutilated, stacked, and burned in a mass crematory with a stench so putrid it made the leaves on the nearby vegetation whither.

She had been all over the world fighting various wars for various people. India, Afghanistan, and the Middle East but the brutality of the combatants facing off in Africa had surpassed all of them. From Nigeria and Sudan to the Sierra Leone there were major atrocities that Mila had witnessed each one more horrible than the last.

She had seen much of the horrors of war but nothing had or probably ever come close to this. Unprovoked and highly brutal attacks on innocent civilians were just too much for even the most hardened of soldiers. Pulling out her 45 caliber pistol she drew it to her temple and pulled the trigger.

The bright flash of the gun muzzle's light illuminated her vision and the gallant, strong face of Zi'Gir swam in front of her eyes. "Zi'Gir!" she said gasping. As the face began to fade she again called out "Zi'Gir!" but it seemed to make no difference as his face disappeared.

(End of Dream Sequence)

"Zi'Gir!" Mila called out as she woke with a start. She was disoriented at first but as she looked around the view came into focus. Rubbing her eyes she looked around; the room was still empty and she was still slightly tired so she knew that she couldn't have been asleep that long.

Mila sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Now that I'm here, what the hell am I gonna do?" she thought as though boredom had overtaken her. What she knew she really wanted however was the very thing that she had been trying to convince herself she didn't want. "Why do I desire him so badly?" she thought disheartened. There were a lot of things that she understood; falling for an elder of another species wasn't one of them.

As she kept her eyes downcast she heard the door slide open with a hiss. As she looked up she was so taken aback to see Zi'Gir standing in the doorway looking at her that she fell off the bed. Pushing herself onto her knees she turned to face Zi'Gir.

Zi'Gir watched ecstatically as Mila's naked form stood up before him. Her battle scars shone beautifully in his infrared vision. And even though he was an elder; it took every ounce of control he had from jumping on her and seizing her right then and there.

Mila looked tentatively at Zi'Gir and even though she kept a calm composure her heart had started to beat faster. "Why did you come here?!" Mila asked sounding startled as she watched Zi'Gir pause before he finally answered.

"I can't stop thinking about you, I have thought of little else but you since you saved my life in that field on the Ooman home world, I cannot describe my burning desire to have you as my mate" Zi'Gir's Ooman words were barely spoken above a whisper but Mila seemed to here them as if he had shouted them.

"I have desired you as well Zi'Gir, I don't know why but I have seen your face in my dream" Mila said her voice soft and shaking. Mila took a step towards him and put her hand on his arm.

Zi'Gir couldn't take it anymore and he grabbed Mila holding in a fierce embrace as he carried her over to the bed. Setting her down gently Zi'Gir unclipped his loin cloth and smiled in amusement as he heard Mila gasp at his size.

Dropping the loincloth to the floor he turned back to Mila who lay on the bed in a way that to him looked very, very seductive. Without a second to waste he leaped on top of Mila for a moment fearing that his weight would crush her. However she survived some how and her moans of pleasure resonated throughout the room.

Hu'Tare walked down one of the hallways seething with anger. True she had considered the possibility that she was being slightly paranoid but the way Zi'Gir acted around that Ooman was similar to the way he had acted around her when she became his mate.

Pulling out a short blade she made her way down the corridor where it was said the Ooman female was now residing. "The Ooman must die even if my mate owes her his life so that I may have his attention again" she thought savagely as she fingered the blade.

As she came to where the Ooman was said to be quartered she gripped the blade tightly as she steadied her breathing. Readying herself for what she was about to do she keyed open the door and stepped inside she froze in shock.

There on the bed was Zi'Gir and he was MATING; vigorously with the Ooman female. Grief and anger seized her simultaneously. Letting out a roar she raised the blade over her head and brought it down in a vertical slashed. Closing her eyes Hu'Tare waited for the blade to fall on her beloved mate.

However she felt the blade stop short and she opened her eyes to figure out what had happened. She noticed that Zi'Gir had rolled out of the way and the Ooman had caught her blade between a pair of metal sticks crossed in an X.

Mila grunted in frustration and exertion as she X blocked the powerful strike. Breaking her X block she rolled away as the female Yautja aimed another clumsy downward strike at her. She dodged the second strike and quickly stood up in time to see the Yautja female charge at her again. Moving quickly she rolled aside causing the female Yautja to crash into the wall with loud thud. "Who is this?" she called out to Zi'Gir.

"One of my mates!" Zi'Gir answered gruffly as he tried to make his way across the room where the two females were engaging each other.

Mila watched as the female Yautja pushed herself of the wall and swung her blade down at Mila with murder in her eyes that was so fierce Mila had never seen hatred like it through all of her time fighting the brutal wars in Africa.

Positioning her batons in an upward X block Mila caught the blade for a second time. "Just try to kill me you bitch" Mila snarled as she shoved the blade aside with her left baton and smashed her right baton as hard as she could into the female's abdomen again and again driving her backwards. The female recovered however and hit her with a punch that sent her flying across the room to be brought up short by the opposite wall.

Panic flared up in Mila's chest as she realized that her flight had caused her to drop her batons. Looking to her side she realized that a ritual knife Zi'Gir had been carrying had come loose as he rolled out of the path of the blade strike. Picking up the knife Mila looked up to see the female being held back by Zi'Gir.

"Pauk" Zi'Gir cursed as he held onto Hu'Tare as hard as he could. "Hu'Tare stop this now!" he demanded in a heated voice. Paying him no heed Hu'Tare broke out of his grip and charged at Mila again swinging the blade over her head as she went.

Mila charged back at the female now running toward her positioning Zi'Gir's knife as she went. Mila ducked under the awkward swing and the two female's bodies clashed together then both fell onto the floor.

Running over to them Zi'Gir pulled Hu'Tare off Mila to find that Hu'Tare had been fatally stabbed in the side with the knife penetrating through to the hilt. Laying his now deceased mate carefully to the side is eyes fell on Mila as she pushed herself into a sitting position.

"Zi'Gir I'm sorry about your mate, I really am" Mila said her eyes beginning to tear as she thought about how much she must have hurt him in the killing of his mate. She felt Zi'Gir lift her chin so that his eyes met hers.

"You did nothing wrong, you were defending herself and defending me in your actions. She tried to kill us both and in your actions you have saved my life again so now I owe you two lives" Zi'Gir said; the pain in his voice was obvious but there was an air of understanding in his voice as well.

Looking around the room Zi'Gir noticed it had been destroyed and looking back down into to Mila's tear streaked face he spoke in a low tone. "You have killed my mate and in the process have saved my life; I would be honored if you could help dull my pain of her passing by taking her place.

Mila gasped and considered refusing his request for a moment. However as she looked at his dead mate lying on the ground and back into Zi'Gir's pained eyes she finally knew the purpose of her own desires for him.

"I would also be honored to help you through your mates suffering by taking her place" Mila said breathlessly.

Picking Mila up in his arms he carried her gently down the corridor of the ship to his quarters where their groans of mutual pleasure could be heard resonating throughout the ship.

(9 months later)

Mila breathed heavily as she again pushed with two Yautja females standing beside her giving her words of encouragement to keep pushing. As she again pushed she felt a large hand grasp her own gently. She looked to the side to find Zi'Gir's face gazing at her and giving her the strength she needed.

With a final push and Scream Mila cradled her newly born daughter. Looking up at her Zi'Gir relaxed visibly before speaking up. "She is as beautiful as her mother; what are you going to name her?" he asked admiringly and then tentatively.

Looking back at him Mila smiled. "I have been thinking for a long time and I believe I have settled on her name" Mila said as she continued to cradle her newborn gently. "I will name her Si'Mara" Mila continued.

At this Zi'Gir sat up straighter. "Blade of Fate? Why would you name her as such?" he asked curiously.

"I can see the spirit of a warrior in her; some day I can tell that she will be a great warrior; whether it is by either her choice or her fate I can tell she will be one" Mila said as she looked down at her new pup that had fallen asleep in her arms.


	18. Origins of Si'Mara pt3

_My side story is finally finished and now I can get back to writing the main story please read and enjoy! _

Origins of Si'Mara pt 3

"Why must you leave so suddenly?" Mila asked angrily as she glared at Zi'Gir who was lying asleep next to her. She had been happier than she could have ever recalled being in her life for the last four years but his sudden need to leave aggravated her almost to her wits end.

Calmly Zi'Gir woke suddenly turned and looked back at her. "I have told you before my mate, I must leave you here on the Home world with Si'Mara while I take multiple groups of unblooded hunters on their Chiva, this is something I must do" his voice was soft and calm yet there was a slight tone of foreboding mixed into it.

Mila's anger gradually dwindled after this statement and she sighed deeply as she laid her head on his shoulder. "I just worry that I will never see you again" Mila whispered quietly to Zi'Gir.

"Don't worry I will return soon and you and our daughter can return to the clan however while our daughter is still just a young pup you must remain here on the home world to care for her" Zi'Gir said as he embraced his mate.

"Nothing would please me more than to have my mate hunting beside me again" he continued with his voice remaining unchanged.

"I am still allowed to worry even if you are the greatest warrior I know" Mila said with a hint of playfulness present in her sorrowful tone.

"Yes you are allowed to worry and I will worry about you as well and I will count the time until you can return to me and my clan" Zi'Gir said his eyes full of affection.

"Our daughter already shows signs of becoming a great hunter" Mila said deliberately trying to change the subject.

"Indeed she does, her powers of observation and ability to keep silent impress and astound me at the same time" Zi'Gir responded happily. "You named her well" he continued as he ran his hand through Mila's hair. He was very pleased to discover her hair still intoxicated him with a drug as potent as C'ntlip.

"I will return to you shortly my mate do not worry about that this Chiva cannot take too long" Zi'Gir said with a tone of reassurance in his voice that seemed to deeply comfort Mila.

"Please promise me you will return soon" Mila asked pleadingly as she dug her face deeper into his muscled chest.

"I promise you I will return soon Mila, for you as well as our daughter I have never loved anyone more than you" Zi'Gir replied as he once again embraced his mate.

Mila watched with a heavy heart as Zi'Gir's clanship took off with a roar of its powerful thrusters. In moments the ship became a speck in the sky and then disappeared all together.

"Mommy can we go home now that daddy's gone?" a child's voice spoke up from around her knee. Looking down at the child she sighed and smiled. "Yes Si'Mara we certainly can. Her voice was steady yet her sadness was painfully clear on her features.

"What's wrong mommy?" Si'Mara asked curiously wanting to know what had made her mother cry.

"It's nothing dear come on let's go home" Mila replied smiling at her daughter. While she was glad Si'Mara was with her yet she had been surprised at herself that she had been let out as she was still so young. Mila was proud however of the fact that her daughter was already extraordinarily intelligent.

"She is aging like me, at least right now she is, however even though she has not hunted she shows the signs of one who will become a great hunter" Mila thought briefly as she took Si'Mara's hand and began to lead her down the gigantic path past a number of large pyramids of Aztec and Mayan design.

As Mila continued to walk towards the dwelling that belonged to Zi'Gir she couldn't help feeling like she was being watched and followed. Casting a gaze over her shoulder she looked around yet she could not see anyone who had been there before.

Dropping her gaze she continued to lead Si'Mara and together the two of them climbed the long stairway and disappeared into one of the pyramids that belonged to Zi'Gir.

Si'Lok watched as Zi'Gir's Ooman mate disappeared into the pyramid with great lust in his eyes. He had been a long time craver of bizarre erotic pleasure and the strong Ooman warrior female that Zi'Gir had brought with him four years ago presented him with another opportunity to indulge his fantasy.

"Still eyeing Zi'Gir's Ooman female I see" a deep voice behind him grunted with amusement. Si'Lok turned abruptly and said in a rushed voiced. "Black Heart my brother, you are correct as usual but don't use my name we are still wanted by the arbitrators as you know".

Trilling with amusement Black Heart looked down at his brother. "If you truly desire to indulge yourself with that Ooman in the way that I am thinking then I shall help you attain what you desire" he continued in a voice that still sounded highly amused.

"You'd help me accomplish a feat like that?!" Si'Lok said as he fingered the spear gun on his side excitedly.

"I will always help my brothers with what they desire as long as it does not get in the way of our greater goal" Black Heart said as he smiled a very evil smile back his brother.

Moving as though they were one both Yautja moved slowly and deliberately towards Zi'Gir's pyramid. Both Yautja waited, watched the Ooman for a few more days and laid out their plans very carefully as an act of dishonor as great as the one they were about to attempt would merit death by the worst punishment one could imagine no matter what part of the universe they came from.

Turning to his brother Si'Lok again thrilled with psychopathic laughter. "I have been thinking very hard on our plan brother and I think it would only be fair if we let Hrak'Ni and Fo'Sun in on our little endeavor" he said in a voice whose tone was one of sheer malice.

"I suppose you are correct Si'Lok. After all our brothers would never forgive us if we undertook an endeavor this fun and gratifying and then we never invited them along" Black Heart growled in agreement.

Turning from their vantage point across from Zi'Gir's home and harem the two Yautja moved quickly in the direction of their hideout so they could inform the other brothers of what they intended.

Looking down at a sleeping Si'Mara Mila sighed sadly yet again. She really did miss Zi'Gir more than she could ever express to him and her desire to see him again was constantly burning within her chest. It had been several weeks since Zi'Gir had left her so that he could test a group of Unblooded through their Chiva.

"Please return soon Zi'Gir I fear that I cannot stand to be here without for much longer" Mila said quietly to herself as she looked down at Si'Mara and smiled weakly.

Several miles away four Yautja brothers sat in a circle and debated over a new crime that they could commit. All agreed that it could be fun but not all agreed on whether or not it was worth the risk that they would run.

"Enough!" Black Heart roared causing the rest to quiet down and look at him. Feeling awkward Black Heart spoke up again. "We are already facing crimes punishable by death, simply being a bad blood merits death. However this allows it so that we have nothing to lose and no rules apply to us. So I say we go ahead with this plan and have our fun while we still live." Black Heart said his voice hard and commanding.

"But brother we still have our freedom and if we expose ourselves now with the crimes we're wanted on there is a very good chance that we will be caught and then we will be killed" Fo'Sun replied nervously.

"We all die, it's only the details of our death that are to be determined you little runt" Hrak'Ni said speaking up for the first time. Fo'Sun cringed back away from the group as Black Heart again took center stage by speaking up again.

"This topic is no longer open to debate. Me and Si'Lok are going and because it his idea he gets to take the first go and I have already committed myself to this endeavor now if either of you want to go with us you are welcome to but me and Si'Lok are going and that is that so do you want to throw in with us if you do who wants to?" Black Heart asked starting to get frustrated.

"I'm in it would do me some good to have a little fun now and then, after all you only live once right?" Hrak'Ni said as he trilled with laughter.

"I might as well go if all you are going after all I don't want to be left out of all of your endeavors my brother" Fo'Sun replied weakly as he drummed his finger nervously across his thy.

"Excellent now let's go our fun awaits us" Black Heart said his excitement rising.

"It was my idea therefore I get to have the first go at her" Si'Lok cut in his expression greedy.

"Yeah we know now stop reminding us Si'Lok now let's just go and get this thing done" Hrak'Ni said to Si'Lok menacingly. Moving with blurring speed the four Yautja brothers ran out of there hideout and into the street heading in the direction of Zi'Gir

"What was that sound" Mila though as she got up from Si'Mara's bedside Mila made her way towards the entrance room to investigate, when she got there however she froze in horror. Four Yautja whom she had never seen nor met before were standing there framed in the entrance with their eyes full of psychotic malice and bloodlust.

Moving quickly Mila threw herself backwards into Si'Mara's room and hit the panel on her way back causing the door to quickly slide shut and lock. Moments later she could hear the Yautja pounding on the doors and looked to find to her horror that the door was about to give way.

"Mommy what is it?!" Si'Mara asked now awoken and shocked by the noise now emanating from her door.

"Si'Mara Hide!" Mila said desperately to her daughter as she extended a glaive that Zi'Gir had given her after she had completed her Chiva that had marked her as an appropriate mate for him by the clan.

Making sure that Si'Mara was well hidden in her unused storage closet Mila assumed a fighting stance and prepared to meet the Yautja who were about to break down the door.

"C'jit!" Si'Lok cursed as he pounded on the door yet again. The Ooman had been fast and as a result their element of surprise had been lost and it always drove him crazy when he lost an advantage.

"Back away brother!" Hrak'Ni called as he backed up and prepared to charge the door. Si'Lok dived out of the way as Hrak'Ni charged at the door and slammed his body into it at full force.

The door gave way and caved in causing Hrak'Ni to fall face first into the room. Moving quickly the three remaining Yautja brothers leaped over a prone Hrak'Ni and charged at the waiting Ooman with Si'Lok in the lead.

Mila watched and readied herself as she saw the enormous Yautja ram the door and cause it to give way. Moments later as she suspected the three other Yautja charged through the door over their fallen companion and charged straight at her.

Moving quickly Mila slashed downward diagonally at lead Yautja. Her slash caught the Yautja on the side cutting deeply. The Yautja knelt to the ground clutching his side in pain. Mila spun and attempted to finish off the intruder with the back of her glaive.

However before she could complete her kill strike another one of the Yautja caught her strike and wrenched the weapon out of her hands. Within moments the two bigger Yautja had her arms pinned behind her.

"Pauk that hurt!" Si'Lok cursed as he clutched his side angrily. He got to his feet and walked slowly and deliberately towards the trapped Ooman female with hate and malice etched all over his face and body. "This female is too much trouble to be bothered with" he thought maliciously as he reached for the spear gun at his side.

Mila saw the Yautja coming towards her and struggled even harder as she saw the spear gun now in the Yautja's left hand. "Si'Mara I'm sorry, please be strong I only wish that I could be there to see it" Mila thought as the spear gun came level.

Si'Lok grinned as he pressed the spear gun to the Ooman female's forehead. "Goodbye Ooman you are just too much trouble for my tastes" Si'Lok said. He pulled the trigger and saw the spear projectile crush the female's forehead. She slumped to the ground and Si'Lok knew that she was dead.

"Let's get out of here the arbitrators are probably on their way!" Fo'Sun called desperately to his brothers from the entrance. Taking his eyes off the dead Ooman female Si'Lok turned and hastily followed his brothers as they made their way out of the pyramid and disappeared into the crowd.

Si'Mara crawled out of where she had been hidden. Throwing herself on top of her dead mother she began to sob uncontrollably however amidst her sobs of sorrow there was an unmistakable hint of rage. "I will kill them all!" she thought fiercely as she continued to sob into the corpse of her mother.

Zi'Gir could tell that something was wrong the moment he got off the clan ship. Mila was not there to greet him and that was very unlike his mate. Moving quickly he ran towards his home as fast as he could; reaching it only a few minutes later. As he entered his home he was horrified to realize that it had been destroyed and an eerie silence had filled it.

Extending his wrist blades he held them at the ready as he methodically searched every room of his now destroyed home. When he finally entered Si'Mara's room he could feel his heart shatter. His beloved mate was lying dead on the floor with his daughter sobbing over her "Mila! No!" Zi'Gir thought sadly as he continued to look at his dead mate with his eyes unmoving.

As he went over to them his daughter's face shot up with a fierce look but her expression softened when she realized it was him. His daughter ran to him and embraced his leg giving him great comfort. Picking her up and placing her on his shoulder he picked up the body of his dead mate and slowly walked out.

Si'Mara looked on with even more sadness than when she had witnessed her mother's death as her father placed her body on a funeral pyre that he had constructed and set it aflame. As the flames burned brightly devouring her mother's she cast her gaze downwards and thought in a cold emotionless tone "I will avenge your death mother; I swear on my honor I will have vengeance".

As the pyre burned down and finally went out having reduced Mila's body to dust Zi'Gir turned to his daughter. "Would you desire to come with my clan and learn the ways of the hunt?" Zi'Gir asked as he turned to face his daughter.

He had sensed very early on that his daughter possessed the same fighting spirit as her mother and that she would become an excellent hunter if she were given the chance.

Looking up into her father's face she nodded impassively. "Yes I would I have nowhere else to go" She said sadly looking back towards the mound of ashes that was her mother's body.

Picking up his daughter Zi'Gir carried her away towards his clan's ship and he looked back once to say his final goodbye to his beloved mate.

_I hope you have enjoyed my side story_. _please review as I am desperate to know how this story is coming along and what I am doing wright or wrong. Anonymous reviews are always welcome _


	19. The hunt resumes

The Hunt Resumes

Miguel looked up as Si'Mara finished her story and said in an understanding voice. "I'm sorry for the loss of your mother, my parent was my adopted father and he also died except by human hands and my friends were also killed by bad bloods".

"So you understand my need to hunt them and you know my pain so will you let me hunt with you now?" Si'Mara asked in a voice that told Miguel that she wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Yes you can, the only problem is that I have to move alone to remain unseen" Miguel said as he contemplated a solution to this problem.

"if that's the case then how about I'll keep masquerading as though I am hunting Oomans and you hunt the way you do, when you or I find one that one will contact the other" she said her excitement becoming apparent.

"Sounds good" Miguel said as he punched in a combination on his wrist computer. "This is the code to my wrist computer, if you should ever find a bad blood that I am looking for contact me, okay?" Miguel asked.

Si'Mara nodded as she turned to leave. "Oh and Si'Mara" Miguel said quickly causing her to turn back to face him.

"Please don't try to tackle one on your own, these aren't just petty bad bloods that were dishonored for some bullshit reason these are real bad bloods" Miguel said placidly tossing her the head of Lo'Sir so that she could make a trophy out of it.

Catching the head of the bad blood in her left hand Si'Mara nodded to Young Fury in agreement again as she turned and jumped from rooftop to rooftop back in the direction of where the hunting ship for her pack was hidden.

Miguel watched quietly as Si'Mara bounded across the roofs of the adjoining building very gracefully.

"This is definitely going to be one very interesting hunt" Miguel thought silently to himself as he turned back to the decapitated body of Lo'Sir and deliberately powered up the reciprocating saw again.

Moving to the ledge of the building he methodically dumped piece after piece over the ledge and they fell two stories to form into a pile on the street below. Slinging the Mk3A1 over his shoulder Miguel vaulted over the ledge and landed in a squat on the street below.

Gathering up the pieces Miguel deposited them down a sewer grate. It would probably be found eventually by the inspectors but Miguel wasn't too concerned about that.

"They have probably found stranger things than this stuff in the sewer system before" He thought amused as he walked back to where he had hidden the jeep.

Loading the jackhammer into his jeep he decided that his best course was to stash the gear he didn't need back at his ship's hiding place and make use of the speed and agility granted to him by the genetic crossing.

Fo'Sun didn't move for a long while; when he was quite sure that the Ooman had left he emerged from his hiding place and let out a low trill of amazement.

"I wonder how Hrak'Ni is going to take the fact that it was an Ooman that killed our great brother Black Heart" Fo'Sun thought exasperatedly as he contemplated to break the news to his new alpha male.

Turning in the direction of their hideout Fo'Sun bounded across the rooftops as fast as he could go. "Probably best to tell him about this unusual situation immediately so he can figure out how to deal with it" Fo'Sun thought with a touch of relief.

He wasn't about to be the one taking responsibility for this little incident. He had simply gone there to discuss a number of tactics with Lo'Sir that could be used against the massing arbitrator threat but what he had stumbled upon was much, much greater in its potential worth.

Meanwhile on one of the destroyed and chaotic sections of the city a number of street punks gathered on a corner to swap out drugs and tales of violence. "So anyway I bring out the switchblade and quicker than you can follow I slit that son of bitch's throat before he could even scream" the leader said his voice ripe with amusement.

Suddenly several chunks of debris off of one of the building roofs fell to the street with a loud crash. "What the hell was that?" one of the gang members said as he turned trying to locate the origin of what had just distracted them.

"Don't know, lets check it out" the leader replied disinterestedly as he pulled out a handgun and cocked it. Suddenly in a blur of motion some kind of invisible figure dropped from the roof above, turned towards them and charged. The thugs attempted to level their weapons but it was too late. Within minutes all of them lay dead.

As Si'Mara deactivated her cloak she took out her ritual knife and bent down to the first dead Ooman. "Not much of a kill but at least its good cover" she thought to herself with a slight hint of relief. Placing the skull of the dead Ooman on her back she took off again in the direction of her pack's ship.

Si'Mara let out a small sigh of relief as her eyes fell upon the cloaked form of her pack ship. The recent set of events that had transpired had been astounding to say the least. Meeting Young Fury, gained respect for his skills, hunting the bad blood and being given the skull as a result excited her in a way she had never experienced previously.

Reminded that no one should yet be able to see the bad blood skull she hastily stashed it in a small ruined building nearby before moving slowly towards the ship with another sigh as the ramp descended except this one was a sigh of foreboding. Then even more slowly she walked up the ramp and into the ship.

"Maybe I missed them" she thought hopefully. But just after she completed her a thought a voice from the ships cockpit door broke the silence.

"You have returned my beauty, I hope you have something to show for your efforts" the voice said excitedly.

"Why does he have to be here now?" Si'Mara groaned inwardly as she turned to face the Yautja who had just spoken. It was Hi'Cho one of the biggest flirts and sleazebags she had ever met in any species and while she knew that he had coveted her for the time since her Chiva, she quietly held him in the utmost contempt.

Slowly with a well concealed attempt to hide her contempt she drew the Ooman skull off of her back and handed it too him.

"Ah, an excellent trophy, you will make a fine mate for me in the near future" Hi'Cho growled in excitement.

"Don't think simply because you're the son of one of the ancients you can have me like that!" she said in a slightly menacing voice.

"Ah you are as stubborn as the first day I met you Si'Mara and that is just one other reason why you should be my mate" Hi'Cho said as he trilled with feint laughter. His statement was cut short however as the rest of the pack boarded the ship. Si'Mara breathed a sigh of relief. Normally she would have kicked his ass but as he had constantly flaunted in everyone's face he was the son of an ancient.

Miguel placed the Jackhammer back in his quarters and made sure the jeep was stashed before he walked out of the derelict tunnel that hid his ship. Quickly scaling a building he turned, activated the cloak on his wrist computer and bounded off across the rooftops with the speed of a Yautja and the agility that his human frame provided.

He savored being able to move with the wind in his face. However his mind was still focused on his assignment, he was an agent and he had a job to do. Secretly however, he was hoping against hope that Si'Mara would contact him again.

"Damn I've never wanted to hunt alongside someone this badly, not even Gro'Kesh, what does it all mean?" He thought as he continued moving across the rooftops in the direction of Luigi's bar.

"This city is too big to just go looking for the brothers so I might as well see if Benelli knows anything new" he thought disinterestedly as he took refuge on the roof of the building adjacent to the bar.

Deactivating his cloak he jumped off the roof, landing on the street below as quietly as a cat. Straightening up he pushed in the door and walked inside. He found Benelli busying himself with a cigarette on one of the bar stools and for the first time in a long time he seemed to be at least somewhat sober.

He spotted Miguel and gestured in a friendly manner to the empty barstool beside him. Taking a seat Miguel picked up a bottle of Tequila and took a long drink before putting the bottle down and turning to face Benelli again.

"So how come your not hitting the bottle as hard this time?" Miguel asked slightly disinterestedly.

"I've decided to go sober for a while and brush up on my skills again, that way I can go back to being a hit man and a sweeper. That way I can earn enough cash to get the hell out of this shit hole" Benelli said his expression one of excitement.

"I wish you luck, but I have one question and that being does this mean you're out of the information business?" Miguel asked placidly before taking another swig of tequila.

"Hell no, knowing what's going on in the streets of city is still something I pursue passionately, why? Are you on a never ending quest for hookers?" he asked as he burst out laughing.

"Not quite but after this whole ordeal is over I could probably use one" Miguel replied more to himself than to Benelli.

"No, I want to know if there have been any new or strange developments on the streets" he continued speaking louder this time so that Benelli wouldn't miss it.

"Hmmm, let me think for a moment" Benelli said thoughtfully as he turned his back to Miguel contemplated Miguel's statement with interest before finally turning back around to face him. "A lot of homeless people on the street are scared stiff, they say a number of invisible killers have been stalking them and the numerous street gangs" Benelli said is eyes downcast with a slight remorse.

"You have an attachment to the homeless of this city Benelli?" Miguel asked catching the gesture of one who had been dealt a great blow to heart.

"They have been my eyes, my ears, and my friends for a very long time, that is the real reason I want to come out of drinking I want to be able to protect them because they have given me so much and as the Mongol proverb goes "Return what is given to you" Benelli said as he held his head in his hands.

"Don't worry, just stay sober and regain the skills you have lost, and who knows you might just get a chance to take a shot at these invisible killers" Miguel said quietly as he placed a hand on Benelli's shoulder.

"Thanks Miguel, I needed that but I also need a smoke, you want one?" Benelli asked as he took out a pack and offered him a cig.

"Nah, I'm ok but just keep it handy I might need one the future when this situation kicks into high gear" Miguel replied.

"Hmm? What situation might that be Miguel" Benelli asked inserting a cigarette between his lips and lighting it.

"That's not important at the moment Benelli, just get you skill sharp for the moment, I'll call you if I need you" Miguel replied in a tone that suggested he was feeling slightly down.

'Well then if your going to leave so soon then you might want to know about what one of my informants found in an abandoned subway not too far away from here, it was so strange he had never seen anything like it even though he had been living on the street for several years" Benelli said coolly as he released a plume of smoke from his mouth.

"Really, what kind of strange thing?" Miguel asked interested.

Hrak'Ni let loose a mighty roar of rage as he slammed his fist into a cement pillar causing a chunk of it to break loose.

"A lowly Ooman killed our great brother?" he roared again turning to Fo'Sun who cringed slightly as he slowly backed away.

"I believe that this Ooman is much more than what he seems I could sense great power and skill emanate from him, even from where I observed him killing Lo'Sir" Fo'Sun said nervously as he continued to back away from his brother.

"Hmm, if this Ooman is as dangerous as you think then maybe we should rethink or plan" Hrak'Ni said his anger seemingly abated. "Fo'Sun, find out who this female is and where she takes refuge, I will request for more help in dealing with the threat of the arbitrators and Si'Lok will consolidate our associates already on the planet" he continued flatly.

Both Fo'Sun and Si'Lok both gave the salute of respect to their alpha male before they turned and exited from their hidout.

"So he found a set of doors?" Miguel asked unsure of what he had just heard.

"Yes and according to him the engraved markings on the doors resemble the appearance of the invisible killers that he has seen" Benelli replied with another plume of smoke.

"Interesting, he has seen these invisible killers?" Miguel asked as if he was uninterested.

"Yeah he has, and from what he says they are ugly sons of bitches" Benelli replied putting out his cigarette in the countertop ashtray. "Besides he isn't the only one to have seen them, I have too" he continued casually.

"You've seen them too?" Miguel asked in a tone that more than just a little interested.

"Why do think I even took to drinking in the first place, I lost my best friend to one of these invisible killers and killed the freak responsible, ever since then however I just couldn't come to grips with the loss I buried myself in a whiskey bottle and been there ever since, however now that they're targeting my friends I've decided to come out of the bottle" Benelli said as he cast Miguel an amused glance.

"So where are these doors that your informant found?" Miguel asked deliberately changing the subject.

"In the abandoned subway in the east side just delve into the tunnels and you can't miss them" Benelli said smiling slightly at Miguel.

"Then let us toast to you interesting find Benelli, I'll be sure to make my way over there if I ever have the time" Miguel said as he held the bottle of tequila over his head like he was at a party, leaned back and took a large swig before turning to leave.

"Hey Miguel, you will remember to call me if you ever need my help right?" Benelli asked his expression now serious.

"If I never need you, then I promise that I'll get in touch" Miguel replied as he pushed open the door and walked out on the street.

20 minutes later Miguel was on top of his favorite building in Chicago, the Sears Tower as he contemplated several parts of this hunt that didn't add up.

"Gro'Kesh said that these brothers wanted this pendant for something and one of Benelli's men found an enormous set of Yautja made doors in an abandoned subway, I just can't shake this feeling that the two are related" he thought frustrated as he held Black Hearts pendant in his hand.

"Well I guess I can't help it now, I might as well go back to the ship and get some for now then I'll look for signs of the brothers elsewhere" Miguel thought tiredly as he made his way down from the tower and began moving across the rooftops with the utmost speed.

"I've got to find Young Fury before he gets killed" Gro'Kesh thought wildly as he stepped from his ship with Gi'Ha following closely behind. He had obtained a location on where the ship Young Fury was from the elder.

"This is troubling, according to the elder he hasn't heard back from the arbitrators sent with Young Fury" He thought as he broke in to a massive run across the rooftops with Gi'Ha struggling to keep up.

As Miguel entered his quarters he breathed in a sigh of relief, he had never been so glad to see it. Removing his clothes and weaponry he lay down on his bed and managed to catch one more feint image of his Yautja skull trophies before he was drowned in sleep.

_I'm back with another chapter!!! I've been a little frustrated about the lack of reviews but I am still determined to see that this story gets finished. _


	20. The Situation Escalates

Stalking

"What the Hell is that?" Miguel thought wearily as he felt someone prodding him awake. As he slowly got up he looked to see who had been prodding him and he froze. Gro'Kesh was standing over him with Gi'Ha framed in the doorway.

"Gro'Kesh, what are you doing here?" Miguel asked in a puzzled manner as he slowly sat up from his bed.

"Young Fury, there is more danger here than we originally expected, all three of the brothers and many of there associates have congregated in this Ooman city" Gro'Kesh said with a note of urgency etched into his voice.

"Tell me something I don't already know" Miguel said with a yawn. "I already killed one of those bad blood associates but not before he told me virtually the same story" he continued his tone weary.

"Really, what happened to this bad blood associate?" Gi'Ha asked his tone slightly skeptical.

"You could say he went to all to pieces after telling me what he knew about his bosses" Miguel replied to Gi'Ha with a smirk that suggested that what he had just said was more than a figure of speech.

Getting out of his bed Miguel stood up and turned to Gro'Kesh with a weary expression on his face. "So now that you're here is there anything else you ask to tell me?" Miguel asked tiredly.

"Yes, where are the two arbitrators that were sent here with you?" Gro'Kesh asked in a monotonous voice.

"I don't know, we separated when we touched down and I haven't heard from them since" Miguel said apprehensively. Now that he thought about it; the fact that the arbitrators were not coming back to the ship probably meant that they had been killed but by whom he couldn't be certain.

"That is troubling news Young Fury, we must find out who killed or captured them and where they are now" Gro'Kesh said with a tone of urgency obvious in his voice.

"Young Fury, why do you have so much Ooman weaponry with you?" Gi'Ha asked as he looked around the room, his eyes taking in the sight of Miguel's human arsenal.

"Seemed like a good idea to have both sets" Miguel said disinterestedly as he turned to face Gro'Kesh

"Gro'Kesh, can you take Gi'Ha and look for them or their corpses while I ask around? I might have a few leads I can follow" Miguel said scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"Fine Young Fury, as you have been on the hunt in this Ooman city for longer than we have I will trust your judgment" Gro'Kesh replied as he motioned for Gi'Ha to follow and with that Gro'Kesh headed out with Gi'Ha following closely behind.

Donning his Yautja armor under his black trench coat Miguel breathed in a deep sigh before placing his mask on. "This situation has to be escalating if Gro'Kesh would come here like that" Miguel thought wearily as he cocked each of his desert eagles and holstered them before likewise mounting his shurikens and combi-stick in places that hid them under his black trench coat.

Mounting his wrist blades and wrist comp on his left and right wrists, Miguel walked out and inhaled a deep breath of hot summer air through his mask. "I guess maybe I should find out what these doors Benelli found mean" he thought stroking the pendent hanging around his neck.

Moving swiftly he bounded across the rooftops heading to the location that Benelli had indicated these mysterious doors were located.

"Why did he have to come with me!?" Si'Mara groaned quietly as she moved silently across the rooftops with Hi'Cho following closely behind. She couldn't have been madder at him if she tried hard, first he had tried unsuccessfully to seduce her and he still had the gumption to follow her around.

She hid her anger however as they continued to move toward where Young Fury had indicated that most of the Ooman bad bloods were located. Looking down from her perch on the rooftop she observed a fairly large group of Oomans loitering on one of the many street corners and motioned to Hi'Cho.

"That's them all right" Si'Mara thought as she tech scanned the group of Ooman bad bloods confirming that all of them were armed with at least some type of weapon.

Silently the two of them observed as one of the gang members cocked a 38. Caliber revolver and began waving it around as if the little pee shooter meant anything. Moving in a coordinated ambush style Si'Mara circled around behind the group while Hi'Cho remained placid on the roof top they had previously occupied.

"3…2…1" She thought signaling Hi'Cho of her intentions. With a roar the two of them activated their cloaking devices and dropped into the midst of the group. As she fell downward into the crowd of gang members Si'Mara somersaulted and extended her glaive bringing it down on one of the gang members. The glaive cleaved his skull and he went down.

The gang turned, tried to organize but Hi'Cho's combi-stick stuck through the back of rear-most gang member. The next several minutes passed in a blur as the gang members fell in droves. As Si'Mara wrenched her wrist blades out of her most recent kill she turned her attention to the last of the gang members.

"What the hell are you!!!" he yelled as he raised his revolver. Moving as quickly as she could Si'Mara ran towards the man closing the distance before he even got off a shot. Moments later the man lay dead upon the ground bleeding excessively from the two deep puncture wounds in his chest.

"You hunt with great skill Si'Mara; you will be perfect as my mate" Hi'Cho said resolutely as he pulled out his ritual knife and began taking the skull of one of the gang members.

"I should use my knife on you so I can cut that idea right out of your thick skull" she thought angrily as she drew her ritual knife and began taking the skull of the Ooman that she had just killed.

From a distance Fo'Sun watched as the female and Yautja young blood she was hunting with peeled away into the darkness leaving behind a bloody mess of slaughtered Oomans. Moving so silently that even the most attuned Yautja senses would have had trouble detecting him. Fo'Sun discreetly followed the two of them as they bounded over the rooftops unaware of his presence.

"That's it lead me right to where you hide female, maybe then we can draw this unusually powerful and mysterious Ooman warrior into the open" Fo'Sun thought happily as he continued to follow them keeping out of sight.

"What is that Yautja doing following us?" Si'Mara thought slightly worried as she and Hi'Cho continued to move across the roof tops and descended into their ships hiding place. She had noticed the Yautja a few moments ago and it had made her feel very unnerved, however the possibility did exist that he was simply another hunter of a different pack.

"Guess I should contact Young Fury just in case he means trouble" Si'Mara thought as she keyed the frequency Young Fury had given her to her into her wrist computer. She had just completed inputting the code when the rest of the Yautja that comprised her pack greeted them effectively distracting her.

Just outside the hideout Fo'Sun punched in a frequency on his own wrist comp. "Hrak'Ni, this is Fo'Sun, I have found the female's hideout, gather all of our associates that you can and converge on my location" he said excitedly as he activated his beacon.

Miguel stopped in his tracks as he heard the com on his wrist computer emit a small whine signaling that someone was trying to contact him.

"Si'Mara what is it?" Miguel asked quietly as a holographic image of her appeared on his wrist comp.

"Some strange Yautja followed me and one other member of my hunting pack back to my ship, I think he might want to cause us some trouble." Si'Mara said quietly with worry evident in her voice.

"I'm on my way, where is your ship located?" Miguel asked glancing around to see if there was anyone following him.

"I'll activate the ships beacon to the frequency of your wrist comp" she replied. Moments later a pulsing dot appeared on his holographic map of the city.

Without even pausing to think about it, he changed his direction and began moving swiftly in the direction of Si'Mara's ship.

"I'm going out for some more hunting" Hi'Cho announced as he made his way towards the ship's ramp and disappeared down it.

"Finally he leaves!" Si'Mara thought with relief as she mounted her skull on the wall of her quarters. To her his exit meant that perhaps she could finally get some peace for once.

Outside of the ships hiding place the three concealed brothers watched silently as one of the Young Bloods exited the ship and made his way off into the night.

"Now we move!" Hrak'Ni said motioning to the dozen or so Yautja behind him. In a swiftness that rivaled that of a cheetah the bad bloods moved out of their hiding place and up the still open ramp of the ship quickly dispatching the Young blood that stood guarding the entrance.

The Young Blood pack in the ship was taken aback as the bad blood group stormed up the ramp and into the ship. Their surprise lasted only moments however as they quickly took cover and powered up their plasma casters.

Si'Mara cocked her head in alarm and confusion as she heard a roar of rage and the loud whines of plasma caster fire. Si'Mara thinking quickly hid one of the small beacons in the bottom part of her loincloth. These beacons were carried by most hunters for situations which they became stranded but not dishonored like if the wrist comp and its beacon had been destroyed in battle.

Collecting her glaive she ran to the door and keyed it open before stepping out and moving towards the sounds of battle.

"C'jit!" Si'Lok cursed as a plasma bolt narrowly missed him. These Young Bloods put up a spirited resistance he had to admit but there fight was in vain. 3 of the six in the pack had been killed in the initial attack but the remaining three had pinned them down and there was still no sign of the female.

Pulling out the pair of repeating spear guns he carried and prepping the twin plasma caster on his shoulder Si'Lok peered around the corner and prepared to make his move. As another plasma bolt singed passed his head he stepped out from cover and fired all four of his weapons at once.

Si'Lok watched with satisfaction as both bolts and spear tips impacted the Young Blood simultaneously causing him to fly backwards and impact solidly with the wall before he fell to the floor as a mass of steaming flesh. Trilling with exhilaration Si'Lok stepped back behind cover as another blue plasma bolt sailed towards him.

"Time to end this" Hrak'Ni thought angrily as he dodged yet another plasma bolt by centimeters. With a mighty roar he extended his dual wrist blades. Unlike regular wrist blades Hrak'Ni's had been customized to sport three blades instead of two and he had one on each of his wrists.

The uniqueness of these weapons combined with the brawling style of fighting that he favored made him a deadly and nasty customer in fight. With a mighty roar Hrak'Ni charged at the two remaining Young Blood Yautja with such speed that neither could fire their weapons in time.

Utilizing his great strength Hrak'Ni impaled the two at the end of his wrist blades and lifted them into the air where they hung limp. Spinning around Hrak'Ni threw the corpses with such force that they flew off of his wrist blades and crashed into the wall leaving massive dents in the steel.

"Now stop messing around and find that female, and remember she is to be taken alive" Hrak'Ni growled in frustration. Splitting up into several groups the bad bloods began to methodically search the ship for their prey.

"Come here and get me" Si'Mara thought angrily as she extended her glaive and crouched in the shadows. She knew that with the numbers they had she was dead but at least she was going to go out fighting and maybe take one or two of them with her if she was lucky.

Preparing for her ambush Si'Mara watched anxiously as a number of bad bloods rounded the corner.

"Come out, Come out wherever you are" Si'Lok trilled in amusement as he moved slowly through the corridor with several associates in tow. The female was definitely nearby he could smell her scent and it was strong with hatred and malice.

"Come on female, attack me" Si'Lok thought maliciously as he prepped the net gun on his wrist gauntlet and waited for the female to make her move.

Si'Mara positioned her glaive for a killing charge as she readied her will power and courage for what she knew had to be a suicidal charge. Taking one last breath to steady herself Si'Mara stepped from cover and charged the bad blood at the front of the pack.

"Finally" Si'Lok thought eagerly as the female came at him with a glaive and a burning heat signature that suggested she was eager to take a chunk out of his flesh.

Si'Lok reacted swiftly and rolled out of the way effectively dodging her vertical slash. The unmasked associate behind him however was not as fortunate and his skull was instantly cleaved in two as the glaive made contact with it.

Rolling onto one knee Si'Lok aimed his net gun and fired it just as the female turned. "Yes!" he thought excitedly as the capture net wrapped around her causing her to drop the glaive which fell to the floor with a loud clang.

Si'Mara groaned in anger and frustration as she felt the net pull tighter, it wasn't getting so tight that it was crushing her however so she quickly deduced that it was a live capture net. "I Can't believe I let this happen" she thought angrily as she lost her footing and fell to the floor.

Suddenly she felt something sharp sting her back, her vision blurred and her world went black.

"Now I can do to you what I did to your mother" Si'Lok thought maniacally taking the injector out of the now unconscious female hybrid and fingering the crescent shaped scar on his abdomen at the same time.

Picking up his captured prey Si'Lok moved to join his brothers and associates who were descending the ramp. Without another sound the brothers and there still living associates bounded out into the city carrying their netted captive with them. One however stayed behind and lay quietly in wait.

As Miguel landed in a squat on the roof adjacent to where Si'Mara's ships hiding place was located and deactivated his cloaking device he could immediately sense that something was wrong. Flaring his nostrils he sniffed the air to find that it reeked of Yautja blood.

"Si'Mara!" he thought desperately as he dropped to the street, drew both of his D. Eagles and moved cautiously up the ramp. He hadn't got more than a few paces however when a blue plasma bolt shot out at him and caught him full the chest.

He flew backwards crashing into a concrete slab causing a good part of it to break off. He stood up quickly and realized that the bolt had not harmed his flesh, it had destroyed the upper portion of his armor.

"Shit" he cursed angrily as he tore off his ruined upper body armor and threw it to the ground in frustration. Without even pausing Miguel brought both his guns to bear on the Yautja now emerging from the shadows of the ships interior.

Miguel fired both guns rapidly and watched as the bullets smacked into the flesh and armor of his assailant. Reloading his guns Miguel holstered one of them and threw one of his shurikens. The shuriken whirled through the air with deadly precision. The Yautja moved his head just in time to prevent his head from being severed but a number of his dread locks were sheered off by the shuriken.

The Yautja let out a roar of rage and activated its triple dot targeting system attempting to draw a bead on Miguel. He didn't give the bad blood the opportunity however and dived to the side as the blue bolt flew past him and demolished the concrete behind him.

Drawing his 2nd D. Eagle and putting away his shuriken Miguel stood up and fired rapidly at the plasma caster. Several of his shots found there mark and minutes later it sparked but could not manage to emit another deadly bolt.

Slamming fresh magazines into his D. Eagles Miguel holstered them and drew out one of his shurikens in the same motion and threw it as hard as he could at the Yautja that now was charging him with combi-stick in hand.

The void steel shuriken sawed through the combi-stick with ease and severed the fingers on the bad blood's left hand. The bad blood roared in pain and stepped back clutching what remained of his hand.

Seizing the moment with alacrity, Miguel charged at the Yautja pinning him with his arm and drawing one of his D. Eagles. Miguel placed the gun under the bad bloods chin and discharged the weapon. The bullet went clear under the mask, through his mandible jawbone and into his brain causing the bad blood to collapse on the floor like a ton of bricks.

Miguel didn't even need to check to know that his assailant now lay dead.

He was about to go search the ship when the dead bad blood's wrist computer activated and caught his attention. Severing the Yautja's wrist with one of his shurikens Miguel picked it up and watched as the hologram of a Yautja appeared.

Miguel had no trouble recognizing that the one on the hologram was Hrak'Ni, the leader of the bad bloods he was hunting. As Miguel continued to look at the hologram it started speaking in a fashion that suggested that it was a prerecorded message.

"If you are hearing this message Ooman than our associate has failed in the task assigned to him. We know that you killed our brother Black Heart and now you will pay for it. We have the female hybrid with us, she is alive but we can quickly change this if you do not comply with what we want. Bring the seal of our sire to this location in 48 hours of your Ooman time or we will kill her." The message ended with a beaconed location.

Copying the location into his wrist computer Miguel sat back against a slab of concrete thinking hard. "How did it ever come to this, how could I have been so stupid as to get her involved?" Miguel asked himself angrily.

"Should I give this up?" He thought fingering what he what he believed was the seal of Black Heart's sire as Hrak'Ni had said it.

"No, I've got to find out what it all means" he thought as he got up from where he was sitting, anger like he had never known was coursing through his veins however he would utilize it instead of being consumed by it.

However what bugged him was how he would be able to fight so many Yautja, even with Gro'Kesh's help he doubted that they could do it. From the new information he had received from the elder there was as many as forty bad blood associates on the planet and he had no doubt that they had gathered every single one of them for a final showdown.

No in order to beat those odds he needed a plan, a bold plan, a plan that surpassed insanity in its level overkill, collateral damage and needless destruction, a plan that was…human.

Walking over to a payphone kiosk across the ruined street Miguel inserted a quarter found on one of his human kills and dialed in a number.

Moments later he could here Benelli's voice answer his phone. "Hello?" Benelli asked placidly if cautiously.

"Benelli, this is Miguel, think you can meet me at Luigi's in an hour?" Miguel asked.

"Sure I'll be there, why?" Benelli responded with faint confusion present in his tone.

"Were going hunting" Miguel replied resolutely before he hung up the phone and vanished into the shadows of the night.

_Sorry if I am late in getting this chapter out but it has been a hellish few weeks. Also to those who also read my Warrior of the Queen story I have temporarily postponed it until I finish with this story. _

_Please review and I'll see you next time!!!!! _


	21. Plan Beyond Insanity

_It's my Birthday!! and my present to all the fans of this story is this new chapter, please accept my gift and enjoy!_

Plan Beyond Insanity

Miguel moved across the rooftops with such silence and speed that it was doubtful that even the most alert Yautja would have detected him. Moving again with graceful agility he jumped off one of the roofs and landed in a squat standing to look up at the sign for Luigi's bar.

"Time to find out if Benelli is in this all the way" Miguel thought forebodingly as he stood in front of Luigi's. He had been hesitating about whether or not he should go in and find out. It wasn't that he wasn't afraid of asking he simply was hesitant about putting another one of his friends into what was likely to be a suicide scenario.

"Well courage comes in all forms" he thought as he took a deep breath and, pausing to make sure his weapons were concealed, he walked inside. (He had removed his mask and other armor before coming so that he could blend in better)

As he entered the bar he looked around and saw Benelli sitting in one of the corners with another man that Miguel had never seen before. He was a powerfully built and elderly man of medium height who looked like he was from some type of Native American tribe but Miguel couldn't tell which one.

Miguel walked over to them and took a seat as Benelli gestured in his direction and beckoned him over. "Miguel I got someone I want you to meet" Benelli said excitedly as he indicated the stranger.

"This is Joseph Hidden Fox or Tomahawk Joe as he's called by some, he's one of my friends and perhaps one of the toughest and most skillfull Cherokee warriors there is or ever has been, I've brought him here because I thought he could be very useful in our extermination situation" Benelli continued with his excitement rising.

"You know this has to be kept quiet Benelli, wouldn't outsiders pose a risk?" Miguel asked in reply as he continued to study Hidden Fox. He definitely looked fit for the job despite the fact that he was elderly but Miguel knew that he had an obligation to keep the Yautja's existence quiet.

"Don't worry about that, I know that you hunt the invisible demons, and as I have killed a number of them and no one except my friend here knows that" Hidden Fox said quietly causing Miguel to do a slight double take.

"You have killed them before, how?!" Miguel asked in an exasperated tone as Benelli began cracking up and laughing uncontrollably.

"You should have seen him Miguel, it was amazing, this son of a bitch killed three of them armed only with a hatchet or should I say Tomahawk" Benelli said enthusiastically looking over to his compatriot.

"Either one is fine" Hidden Fox said quietly as he continued to look at Miguel with a prying gaze. Miguel didn't know what it was but something about his gaze made Miguel feel somehow uneasy, it was as if the old man could somehow see right through him and read his thoughts.

"Anyway were here now so what is it you want us to do Miguel?" Benelli asked him in a much quieter tone indicating that the time for secrecy was now.

"Benelli are you sure you want to be part of this? I mean you know that it is very likely that could get killed in this fight" Miguel said in low tone to match Benelli's.

"Hey don't you think that it's better to go out with a bang than a whimper, I know I would because you got a go out sometime" Benelli responded his voice unrelentingly steady.

"Alright, I can see there is no dissuading you Benelli but what about your friend Hidden Fox here" Miguel said taking another look at the elderly Cherokee.

"I have a duty to protect the people from those that would harm them, I have protected my people when these demons came hunting them, now I will protect those of this city" Hidden Fox said quietly but resolutely.

"You're in then, even knowing all of the risks?" Miguel asked in one last challenge to be sure of the old warrior's resolution.

Hidden Fox nodded quietly in acknowledgement.

"Well then" Miguel said turning back to Benelli with an air of complacent excitement about him. "Alright, seeing that there is no dissuading either of you then get your gear ready at your apartment Benelli and I'll meet you there in about four hours" Miguel said in an undertone.

As Miguel finished his sentence the three of them got up from their table and walked towards the door.

"Hey Miguel, what's your plan for taking these guys down" Benelli asked as they exited.

"Don't worry about that, it will have so much overkill that even you won't be disappointed Benelli" Miguel replied with a sly grin as the three of them separated.

As soon as Benelli and Hidden Fox had disappeared from his view Miguel activated his cloak and began moving swiftly across the tops of buildings and back towards his ship.

It wasn't long before he reached it and began to devise a plan in his mind. He had constantly reviewed the schematics of the building and there were plenty of spots to launch a surprise attack but no matter how he divided it he couldn't see how the three of them could take on forty Yautja.

"Well like Benelli said, you got to go out sometime" he thought morbidly as he landed in a squat in front of his ship and moved swiftly up the ramp.

As Miguel was loading weapons into the jeep Gro'Kesh and Gi'Ha suddenly materialized behind him.

"Gro'Kesh, did you find the arbitrators I came with?" Miguel asked as he loaded the last of his Ooman weapons into the jeep and shut the back hatch.

"We've found parts of them and we believe we have discovered the hiding place of one of the bad blood brothers" Gro'Kesh said his aggression apparent even under the cloak of his mask.

"Which brother?" Miguel asked uncertainly. He didn't want to get his plan off to a premature start.

"The weak one Fo'Sun, me and Gi'Ha are going to apprehend him now" Gro'Kesh said resolutely.

Miguel relaxed however he managed to keep it from being visible. However he noticed something about Gi'Ha as Gro'Kesh spoke. He seemed uneasy in a way that Miguel couldn't describe but he dropped his gaze and looked back to Gro'Kesh.

"Alright, you go apprehend him and I'll look for the rest of that bad blood scum" Miguel said placidly disguising what his true intentions were. He didn't know why he didn't want to tell Gro'Kesh of his plan but common sense told him that a human approach and team would be necessary to even have a chance of success.

"Then I will meet you back here soon, until then good hunting" Gro'Kesh said in a growl. Then to Miguel's great surprise Gro'Kesh gave him a gesture of respect as he strode from the room with Gi'Ha following close behind.

"Good luck" Miguel said more to himself than anyone else because both Gro'Kesh and Gi'Ha had already left.

'Well, time to figure out what all this is actually about" he thought as he held the seal dangling in front of him on its neck cord. This was what they were after, he was sure of it and now he would go to find out why they wanted it so badly.

Holstering only his D. Eagles and shurikens under his black trench coat Miguel descended the ramp and sped off into the night moving towards the location of the mysterious doors at breakneck speed.

Landing silently on the ground Miguel deactivated his cloak and stared down the pitch black maw of the abandoned subway lines.

"Never thought I'd actually be spelunking in this place" Miguel thought solemnly as he placed his sunglasses over his eyes and activated the thermal mode. Without even hesitating a moment Miguel moved swiftly into the blackness.

Keeping his hands close by his guns Miguel moved carefully through the abandoned subway line. It wasn't that he was a coward but it was very likely that the brothers had left one or more of their associates to guard these doors or ambush him. Fortunately he didn't meet any of them.

"They're probably waiting at their ambush poin…." He broke off in mid thought as he rounded another corner and froze.

An immense amount of flickering heat was being radiated off of something up ahead. Drawing his D. Eagles Miguel advanced cautiously towards the heat source. As he got closer he realized that it was coming off of the doors themselves.

Turning off his thermal vision Miguel looked up to discover that a number of broken flood lights were pointing towards the door and a bunch of human bodies covered the ground.

"They were probably here for the same reason I am now" Miguel thought with a grimace as he moved past the slaughter to examine the doors. They had a Yautja design and phrase in Yautja etched out on them.

Miguel used the translator installed in the sunglasses to translate the words and waited as the words flashed by his eyes. First they were in Yautja then they turned to English.

"Beyond this door resides the Yautja shield of justice, only those who seek to uphold justice may wield it". It was a brief message but it was definitely to the point.

"What is the Yautja shield of justice" Miguel thought vaguely as he continued to examine the doors from top to bottom. The inscription had been interesting but it still didn't get him any closer to figuring out how to actually open them.

"These things must weigh five tons so can't push them, and it looks like these poor bastards already tried explosives" Miguel thought observing the damage to the tunnel. From the looks of it they had detonated dynamite but the door didn't seem to even have a scorch mark on it.

Miguel was about to call it quits and go to his rendezvous with Benelli when a peculiar design imbedded on the doors caught his eye. He knew he had seen it before but he couldn't remember where.

Then it hit him, he knew where he had seen that design before. Pulling Black Heart's pendant out from around his neck and held it next to the design on the doors.

"It's the exact same design" Miguel thought as he continued to compare them, tracing over every line of the two surfaces. Suddenly Miguel knew, without even knowing how he knew that the pendent was the key to opening the door.

Without a moments hesitation he placed the pendent into the indentation and stood back to watch as the doors opened with the loud noise of metal scraping metal. With his D. Eagles still at the ready Miguel moved cautiously through the doorway.

"Holy Shit! So this is what they were after all along" Miguel thought exasperatedly as he observed what was displayed before him. It was an Awu'asa, however even in the dim light Miguel could tell what was so valuable about it. It was made from void steel, the impenetrable black metal.

"Damn, no wonder they want this so bad, it has to be the closest thing to being invincible that you can possibly find" Miguel thought wearily. He didn't really care too much for the power that it might yield but he had to rescue Si'Mara and having and Awu'asa like that would probably be his best shot at actually pulling it off.

As Miguel slowly approached the Awu'asa's stand a hologram of an old and powerful looking Yautja appeared in front of him. From the tone of the message it appeared to have been prerecorded.

"If this message has been activated than I am already dead so I can only hope that the shield of the arbitrators has fallen into the right hands. This is one of the two shields of the arbitrators, virtually impenetrable armor that can only truly be wielded by a warrior who enforces the honor code of the Yautja. Hopefully the one who finds this is one because if it fell into the hands of the bad bloods it would be an unprecedented disaster. So if the one who has found this is an honorable warrior, please give this to the arbitrators so they can continue the preservation of our culture, if you are an Arbitrator, please… become the shield of those who protect the code of the Yautja way of life and protect our way of life to your dying breath" and with that the hologram faded to be replaced by a black emptiness.

Miguel continued to stare at the Awu'asa after the message had ended. He had struggled over what his place within Yautja society was ever since he had first gone to live aboard the clan ship.

"Am I an arbitrator, or am I an honorable warrior" Miguel thought as he continued to stare at the armor. Quite frankly he doubted that he was either, however there was still something that mattered even more than that and he had to get moving or he risked losing it forever.

"My apologies old Yautja, but there is something I must do, if I am not worthy of receiving this armor then I will give the Awu'asa to the ancients but regardless, there is something I must do" Miguel said keeping his eyes downcast.

Suddenly a series of metallic clicks could be heard resonating throughout the chamber and Miguel stared up and saw to his surprise that the large Awu'asa had decreased to a size that looked like it would fit him perfectly. Donning the armor in one swift motion Miguel gave a gesture of respect to the empty room before he turned and headed back towards the entrance of the subway. He was surprised at how light and natural the armor felt on him as he moved across the rooftops and back to his ship so he could collect his arsenal and go to face his destiny whether it's ending was for better or for worse.

"I may not be worthy of this armor, but I will do my best to do it justice" Miguel thought as he tore out of the subway and out into the city.

"Well time to see if Benelli's ready go on a suicide mission" Miguel thought morbidly as he pulled the jeep in front of Benelli's apartment complex. He had donned his trench coat so that he could keep his Awu'asa out of sight from any passerby, not that it was a big problem since the Awu'asa was made from void steel and the darkness was as pitch black as the Awu'asa itself. Still it was always better to be safe than sorry.

He moved to the apartment number that Benelli had provided him just before they split up. Knocking on the door Miguel stood back and waited.

"Who is it?" Benelli called through the door.

"You know damn well who it is Benelli" Miguel responded in a tone that suggested he was slightly aggravated.

"OK, OK I'm just busting your balls, geez" Benelli responded as he slowly opened the door.

"Sorry about that, but I'm just a little anxious to see this finished" Miguel mumbled as he proceeded inside and froze as he took in his surroundings.

"Nice stuff Benelli!" Miguel exclaimed as his eyes took in several walls with all their space given to numerous types of guns along with piles of professional grade C-4 bricks.

"Thanks, I've been saving it for just this sort of special occasion" Benelli said jovially as he and Miguel walked over to Hidden Fox who was preoccupied in checking a compound bow.

"Nice bow but will it really do anything against these invisible bastards?" Benelli asked slightly sarcastically.

"I think these explosive arrowheads should do the trick" Hidden Fox said with a grin as he held up an arrow. Miguel looked closely at the arrowhead and discovered that just wrapped just under the head was an amount of primer cord and a very small detonator. Miguel was not really an explosives expert but a small amount primer cord could blast a steel door clean off it's hinges and he didn't want to think about what would happrn if it detonated when it got planted into your flesh like the arrow was designed to do.

"Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks" Miguel thought as Hidden Fox put down the arrow to show them his secondary weapon, a hatchet with a titanium head and a tribal design imbued on it.

"Hey Miguel what's with that get up" Benelli said indicating the black armor under Miguel's trench coat.

"This is my insurance, where's yours?" Miguel asked in reply.

"Just about finished with it now" Benelli said as he inserted trauma plates in the front and back pouches of his kevlar vest and strapped it on. Benelli turned back to prepping a number of C-4 bricks and Miguel was amused to discover that Benelli had painted a red pentagram on the back of the body armor.

"Didn't take you for a religious man Benelli" Miguel said with a smirk

"I'm not, but I'll bring all kinds of hell to those who want to invade my city" Benelli said not bothering to turn around.

"Guess I agree with you on that, but come here and listen to my plan before you start bringing hell" Miguel said as he activated the holographic map in his wrist computer.

Benelli and Hidden Fox looked at the holographic map with slightly puzzled yet understanding expression.

"Now I've worked out all possible angles and from what I can deduce no matter how we go in were gonna end up dead as there are just too many of them" Miguel said morbidly as he indicated the various entry points to the building.

"Well in my opinion it's always best to go out guns blazing" Benelli said cracking a grin a mile wide.

"Duly noted" Miguel replied as he zoomed the map out so that the whole building appeared.

"Wait, hold that image" Benelli said quickly looking intently at the holographic readout. "I thought so, that's Kruger explosive industries, the building was going to be condemned for being a hazard for possesing thin walls along with a high amount of TNT and magnesium powder being stored there".

"So in other words it's an extremely large and flimsy explosives shed" Miguel said his spirit sinking even lower than it had previously. "Damn it this is gonna take a goddamn miracle to even come close to succeeding, if we fire a single shot in there the whole place will go up in smoke"

"Pauk! I'll kill all those bad bloods" Si'Mara thought half angrily and half groggily as she slowly awakened from her drug induced sleep to discover that her hands had been chained behind her and linked to the wall by another chain.

Realizing that fighting against her restraints proved futile Si'Mara relaxed her body yet she made sure not to make it look like it had defeated her. "I have to keep calm; that seems to be how Young Fury can fight as well as an arbitrator". Si'Mara's eyes shot up in realization, of course, she could use the beacon to call for help and began working her chained hands behind her, trying vigorously to get her hands on the small beacon and hoping that the bad blood guarding her wouldn't notice.

The bad blood didn't notice and after a couple more minutes of struggle she managed to get the beacon in her grasp and activated it. "I hope this works" she thought as she watched the dim shadow of the beacons light pulsate in quick succession.

Miguel was still wondering what the most glorious way to go out fighting was when he heard his wrist computer emit another whine. Miguel activated his wrist computer and was surprised to find a second beacon was pulsing in a building in the same warehouse district as the beacon Hrak'Ni had sent. The only difference was that it located was about two miles away on the opposite side of the district.

"Zoom in and magnify on that location" Miguel commanded the wrist computer. The wrist computer zoomed in to reveal what looked like a two story machine shop warehouse.

"Give me pheromone and body heat readouts" he continued and was surprised to find fourteen full sized Yautja and another smaller figure that looked as if it was being held against it's will on the second level. Suddenly it hit him and he let out a whoop of exhilaration causing Benelli and Hidden Fox to look at him.

"What is it Miguel?" Hidden Fox asked

"Those bastards were trying to sucker us but thanks to a little help, we've got a new and manageable target" Miguel said beckoning them closer.

"See here, they wanted us to think that the explosive warehouse was our primary target so they put most of their forces there. However our primary target is this machine warehouse here, so we will raid that location instead" Miguel said indicating the two locations.

"But if we simply raid that location instead, the bulk of their forces will just move to surround us and we'll be finished" Hidden Fox said in calm voice.

"That's why Benelli's gonna load his car with a bunch of those explosives, strap a brick to the accelerator, crash it through the flimsy walls and detonate it, he can use the straight path in back of the building to get enough distance to get clear" Miguel said indicating a long and straight maintenance road leading to the explosives building.

"But Miguel if I combined the explosives in the shed with just a few of these C-4 bricks it'll send that place into orbit" Benelli said in a slightly worried voice.

"Good, maybe they can say hi to the clans on the way up" Miguel thought but looked at Benelli and said in a mellow tone "at least then we can be sure their all eliminated".

"As soon as we here the explosion Hidden Fox will use my rocket launcher to blast a hole on the ground floor of the North wall, while I use a grenade to blow a hole in the third level of the south wall. We'll take them by surprise and hopefully we'll be able to eliminate all of them" Miguel said indicating the entry points.

"Where the hell am I gonna be while all this is going down" Benelli said with a hint of dissapointment beginning to show in his voice.

"Don't think I forgot about you, Benelli you'll haul ass to our primary target and I don't care how you decide to make your entrance just make it big, deadly, and effective" Miguel replied and watched with relief as Benelli sat back with a self satisfied smile.

"I guess then the only thing left to do is kick all of their asses' Hidden Fox said in an uncharacteristically fierce voice.

"All right, we got the plan; we got the weapons, now lets **move!**" Miguel said matching Hidden Fox's fierce voice as he stood up and cocked his D. Eagles in the same motion.

_The story is reaching its peak and the last few chapters will be coming along shortly but for today I hope you have enjoyed my story. Please review and I'll return yet again with the next chapter!!! see you then. _


	22. Painting the Town Green

_Hello Again, I have returned_! _Sorry that this chapter is late but it was very time consuming and difficult to write also I didn't have much time to do it. but that aside here is my next installment of my story, hope you enjoy. _

Painting the Town Green

"Is tonight the night that I meet my death?" Miguel thought balefully as he watched the buildings passing Benelli's car on both sides of the street. Shifting his gaze to the seats in front of him he relaxed slightly.

The fact that he was not alone in his struggle brought him some comfort but it could not be complete because he knew that he was now about to place the last human friends he had in danger.

"Something is still bothering me, some of the stuff that these bad bloods know couldn't be obtained without help from someone inside" Miguel thought worriedly.

Miguel had spent some time investigating some of the info obtained off of the dead bad blood's wrist computers and some of the information was disturbing to say the least. Everything from hunting schedules to arbitrator raid operations had been on those wrist comps and only an informant could have given them that information.

"Well, no sense worrying about it now" he thought with a sigh. The idea an informant on the inside was very unnerving to say the least but weeding him out would be a job for another day. For the moment he only had two goals, get Si'Mara out of there alive and wipe out the bad blood brothers in the process.

Miguel let his gaze drift over to the front passenger seat where Hidden Fox sat applying war paint to his face and making him look like a Cherokee warrior from the past.

"Hey Hidden Fox, think there's anyway I could get some of that war paint for a little added ferocity" Miguel asked interestedly.

"Sure, take the whole case" Hidden Fox replied tossing the small container of black war paint to Miguel who caught it and stashed it next to the shuriken mounted on the side of his void steel armor.

"Just hold on Si'Mara" Miguel thought to himself. He was wondering why he was doing all this for someone he had only met a short time ago but something about her just made him feel…different. He couldn't be sure what it was but he did know that he had gotten her involved and he couldn't let her die, no matter what happened to him in the process.

"Hey Miguel, we're here" Benelli's voice said from the seat ahead of him at the same time as the car ground to a halt. Moving forward to look out the windshield Miguel saw the large sign that marked the industrial district where both Si'Mara and the bad bloods were located.

"All right boys it's just like we planned, Benelli here's where we split up. I'll take Hidden Fox to our primary target and you take care of the demons holed up inside the explosives depot Miguel said as the three of them exited the car.

"Well I guess then we'd better saddle up" Benelli said as he popped open the trunk of his car and withdrew an M240 squad automatic weapon, fed a round of the ammo belt into the chamber and cocked it.

"So do you carry that around with you all the time" Miguel asked amused as he mounted his void steel mauls in an X shape on the back of his body armor and donned his modified sunglasses.

"I've been saving it for a special occasion" Benelli replied getting back into the driver seat and starting up the engine.

"Well just make sure you set the charges right and we'll be set for a grand night of bloodshed" Miguel said as he cocked his AR-15 and loaded a 40mm grenade into the under mounted launcher before mounting his black glaive on the small of his back.

"Yeah sure, just get ready for one hell of a big bang and I'll meet you in the midst of the carnage" Benelli said as he shut the door and drove away.

"Well then, let's get moving" Miguel said turning to Hidden Fox. Together the two of them sprinted to the target building. Hidden Fox gave no reply but Miguel could tell that he was ready by the way he hefted the rocket launcher onto his shoulder and looked at Miguel with an intense expression.

Miguel stopped at a narrow alley across from their target and motioned to Hidden Fox to follow him into the alley.

"Alright, Hidden Fox, you go around to the opposite side and wait for Benelli to give the signal, as soon as he does you blast through that wall on the ground level and at the same time I'll blast open the opposite wall on the third level" Miguel said as he indicated their two points of entry.

Shouldering the rocket launcher Hidden Fox nodded to show that he understood and began moving around the warehouse to his ambush position.

"Time to see how suicidal this whole thing really is" Miguel thought as he climbed the fire escape to the third floor and waited of the signal to come.

"Time to score the head of one bad blood" Gro'Kesh thought with satisfaction as he and Gi'Ha circled the hiding place of the bad blood brother Fo'Sun.

Motioning for Gi'Ha to follow him Gro'Kesh dropped into the hole that acted as the entrance with Gi'Ha close behind.

Upon entering the hideout Gro'Kesh noticed two things. One was the heads of the arbitrators that were mounted on the wall and the other was of the small Yautja sitting on a raised slab of concrete and eyeing them with the utmost hatred.

"Fo'Sun, this is Gro'Kesh of the arbitrators, you are to die for the crimes you have committed against our kind, you can commit suicide and give yourself one last show of honor, or you can resist and die in the same shame in which you have chosen to live." Gro'Kesh said in an authoritative tone.

"You will find that it is not me who dies this day arbitrator, but you" Fo'Sun said trilling with amusement behind his mask.

"What does he mean by that?" Gro'Kesh began to think. Suddenly a force seized him from behind and threw him full force into the wall. The concrete shattered as he made contact with it and showered him in debris as he rose to his feet.

Gro'Kesh took in the scene and saw to his absolute fury that Fo'Sun had jumped from his position on the elevated slab to stand beside Gi'Ha.

"So you were working with them the whole time, why?!" Gro'Kesh asked his anger rising like a mushroom cloud.

"You're dealing with more than you could possibly comprehend Gro'Kesh; I have been providing information for the bad blood brothers since my Chiva and have been very good at it, even though I wasn't able to tell them about your little pet. However the bad blood brothers themselves are only the tip of the iceberg" Gi'Ha said as both he and Fo'Sun deployed combi-sticks.

'What do you mean, only the tip of the iceberg?" Gro'Kesh asked his anger almost getting the better of him.

"What does it matter to one who is about to die" Gi'Ha said as he assumed a fighting stance.

Gro'Kesh roared in fury and deployed his smart disc. Fo'Sun crumpled to ground as the smart disc severed his head. Extending his own combi-stick, Gro'Kesh faced down the Yautja who had for so long been his friend and prepared for a fight that would only end when one of them lay dead.

Inside of the warehouse Si'Lok turned to regard the chained female hybrid with malice that almost seemed to steam over the outside of his mask.

"To think that I would meet the daughter of that Ooman whore who gave me pleasure so long ago" he growled as his piercing gaze moved up and down her body.

"I'll kill you Pauk de!" Si'Mara shouted as she renewed her struggle against the chains binding her. They wouldn't give however and she relaxed after a few more minutes of struggle.

"Those chains are made of the finest Yautja steel so don't even bother with trying to break them" Si'Lok growled as he slowly approached her with the smell of lustful malice emanating from the air around him.

"Si'Lok, I need to speak to you a moment" Hrak'Ni's voice called out from across the warehouse.

"I guess my pleasure will have to wait, at least for now" Si'Lok growled as he turned and walked away in disappointment.

"Well, guess it's time to say goodbye" Benelli thought as he stepped out of his car and aimed it down the straight road that led to the where the invisible demons had intended to ambush them.

Popping open the trunk Benelli checked to make sure that the pile of C-4 was in place and synchronized to go off at the same time; readying the remote detonator, Benelli placed a brick on the accelerator and watched as the car began to move in the direction of the building.

Diving behind a concrete wall nearly two meters thick Benelli watched as the car moved closer and closer to the building with incredible speed.

"Fire in the Hole" he called out, and pressed the detonator just after the car rammed through the flimsy wall. Benelli ducked behind the concrete wall again as the force of the blast caused the ground to shake and the front of the concrete wall give way.

As Miguel felt the ground shake violently he swore that he could hear Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin start up in his head. He didn't give it much thought however as looked over to see that the original bad blood ambush point had gone up in a huge explosion. "Hidden Fox, open fire" Miguel yelled out as his finger flew to the trigger of the grenade launcher.

"What the hell was that?" Hrak'Ni roared wildly as the ground began to shake violently.

"Young Fury, have you come?" Si'Mara thought as she looked up hoping that indeed he had come to help her. She had no sooner finished her thought when the walls on both ends of the structure exploded in shower of sparks and debris that caused the warehouse's sprinkler system to activate.

"All right boys, it's time to die!" Miguel shouted as he ran onto the third level catwalk through the gaping hole in the side of the building and emptied the assault rifle clip into the closest of the bad bloods on the level. The Yautja jerked backwards as the powerful rounds smacked into him over and over again driving him the side of the catwalk. The bad blood fell over the side with a shriek of pain and landed squarely on a spike of loose steel that effectively impaled him. The Yautja gagged in pain but didn't move.

Pivoting his feet Miguel brought the assault rifle to bear on the biggest of the bad bloods, he didn't have much trouble figuring out that it was Hrak'Ni the new alpha male of this bad blood pack. Miguel launched a grenade at the bad blood leader but moving with extraordinary speed for his size Hrak'Ni dived over the catwalk railing and fell onto the ground level just in time causing the grenade to sail over him and blast another huge hole in the opposite wall.

Slamming a fresh magazine into his assault rifle Miguel turned back around and opened up on the two bad bloods still on the third level. The bad bloods were prepared however and took cover as the barrage of lead sped towards them.

"Damn it, these guys aren't playing around either" Miguel thought as he attempted to load yet another magazine. Before he could finish however a plasma bolt impacted the weapon and knocked it from his hands. Miguel looked over to see the marksman known as Si'Lok diving behind cover anticipating his retaliation.

Miguel turned his gaze back to the bad bloods and saw to his chagrin that both had come out of cover and were advancing towards him one wielding a combi-stick and the other with wrist blades extended.

"Alright, so that's how you want to play" Miguel thought angrily as he drew the twin black mauls off his back and spun them forward as he waited for the two bad bloods to make their move.

He wouldn't have to wait long. He had no sooner assumed a fighting stance when the bad blood armed with his wrist blades jumped at him thrusting him arm forward in an underhanded hook. Miguel's reflexes were immediate and he low blocked with the left maul brushing the arm away. At the same time as he brushed away the arm with his left maul he brought his right maul across and slashed the Yautja across the chest. The void steel did its job perfectly and the armor was torn apart as if it was tissue.

Moving with agility that defied belief Miguel continued his spin and went into a crouch without slowing down. As a result both his mauls sliced clean through the middle of the bad blood's abdomen.

As a result both halves of the first bad blood fell to the floor in a gory mess and the bad blood wielding the combi-stick charged Miguel attempting to strike him using a downwards vertical slash. Miguel was ready however and as the combi-stick came down Miguel put up his mauls in an X block. The weapons sparked as they impacted each other but Miguel was able to catch the combi-stick.

With a burst of strength Miguel swept the combi-stick aside with his right maul and used his momentum slash with his left. Blood welled from the gash but it wasn't deep enough to kill him.

Roaring in pain the bad blood lunged at him thrusting the combi-stick straight at Miguel's head. Acting on the reflexes that had served him so well Miguel again brought out his mauls and cut the tip clean off of the end combi-stick in a flash of black metal.

Spinning low Miguel used his right maul slash the Yautja's leg out from under him and as the bad blood fell backwards Miguel held his left maul high before bringing down on the bad blood's neck and severing his head as his bodied was still falling to the ground.

Turing away from the corpse Miguel spotted Si'Mara chained to the wall on the second level and jumped down moving towards her as fast as he could go. It wouldn't be long before the bad bloods would get over the surprise of his attack and regroup.

"Now I go to face my destiny" Hidden Fox said quietly to himself as he charged through the hole the rocket had created with his arrow in his compound bow notched and ready to fire.

As he entered he caught the attention of two of the demons who advanced towards him with their weapons ready. Hidden Fox brought his bow up and let the arrow fly. The arrow flew true and struck the first of the demons in the stomach causing him to grunt with pain. The demon went to remove the arrow but before he could manage to do so the primer cord detonated blasting a gaping hole in the demon's belly.

The explosion and the after effect of his dead compatriot falling to the floor in a pool of fluorescent blood caused the other attacking demon to hesitate just long enough for Hidden Fox to notch another arrow and send it flying.

The arrow impacted the second demon in the neck. The force of the impact caused the arrow to sink half the shaft's length deep into the demon's throat before it also exploded sending the demon's head flying into the air and away from the body now slumping to the floor.

Gro'Kesh roared in absolute fury as he and Gi'Ha clashed together with combi-sticks ready to kill. Using his superior strength Gro'Kesh pushed Gi'Ha's combi-stick out of the way and thrust the tip at his head. Gi'Ha saw it coming however and tilted his head causing the thrust to miss him. Gi'Ha utilized his failed attack to push away and square off with him yet again.

This time Gi'Ha decided to strike first with a vicious vertical slash. Gro'Kesh brought up his combi-stick and managed to block the slash before he went into a crouch and spun attempting a horizontal slash at Gi'Ha's midsection. Gi'Ha jumped back but not far enough and a thin line of fluorescent blood welled up from the gash.

Roaring like a wounded animal Gi'Ha came at Gro'Kesh again and bombarded him in flurry of combi-stick attacks. Gro'Kesh backed up and managed to block most of the blows but took a hard blow to the unarmored portion of his back and gave out a grunt of pain. Twisting around Gro'Kesh slashed upwards and managed to get the combi-stick to fly out of Gi'Ha's hands.

It was Gi'Ha's last chance and he knew it. Curling his hand into a fist he deployed his wrist blades and charged at Gro'Kesh and managed to knock Gro'Kesh's combi-stick away. Acting on reflex Gro'Kesh deployed his wrist blades and squared of again preparing for a fight in which only the victor would come out alive.

"Christ, who the hell built this district?!" Benelli wheezed and he moved towards the building where the battle with the invisible demons was taking place. Benelli wasn't in very great shape and the M240 along with all its ammo was heavy. He knew that at this rate he wouldn't get there until the battle was over or he'd be too tired to fight.

"Gotta find a faster way" Benelli thought looking around frantically. He cracked a wide grin as his eyes took in the sight of what looked like a large 18 wheeler with trailer still attached.

"That'll work" Benelli said quietly to himself as he ran over to the cab of the truck and used the butt of his machine gun to break the window. Opening the door of the cab Benelli popped open the steering wheel consul and began systematically running his fingers over the tangled mass of loose wires.

"All right, if I cross these two wires then this piece of shit should…" Benelli thought as he crossed the wires and listened to the sound of the big rig's engine fire up.

"That's what I'm talking about" he yelled out in exhilaration as his foot pounded the gas pedal to the floor and the huge truck began to pick up speed.

"Si'Mara! are you okay?!" Miguel asked frantically as he jumped onto the second level catwalk and ran to where Si'Mara was bound to the wall.

"Yeah, just get these pauking chains off" Si'Mara grunted as she again strained at the cuffs binding her hands behind her back.

Deploying his shuriken Miguel quickly and expertly cut the chains binding Si'Mara. Groaning she rubbed her chafed wrists in frustration.

"They ambushed my pack and killed them; however I was given the shame of being captured" Si'Mara sighed sadly as she turned to face Young Fury "but that aside why did you come for me?" she asked her gaze borrowing into his eyes.

"I guess it was because…" Miguel broke off as a plasma bolt hit the catwalk support and the half of the catwalk supporting Young Fury gave way.

"Young Fury!" Si'Mara shouted out in terror as he disappeared in a cloud of debris. Fuming in fury so absolute it made the world seem colder she turned to face the Yautja who had fired the bolt only to cast her gaze on a Si'Lok who was trilling with laughter and causing her fury to flare up even more.

"You killed my mother, you killed my pack, you've attacked my friend pauk-de and now you will die" she breathed the fury in her voice as cold as an artic wind.

"You will find that it is you who dies today Lou-dte Kalei" Si'Lok said still trilling with equally cold amusement as he aimed his spear guns straight at the female hybrid's chest.

Si'Mara knew that Si'Lok wouldn't miss; she knew that she was defenseless and without a weapon but to her none of that mattered. She was facing the bad blood that had been responsible for all her suffering and all of her pain and if she had to die to kill them then she would definitely do it.

"Si'Mara! Catch!" a voice from below called out to her. She looked down and was relieved to see Young Fury standing with what looked like only a few minor cuts and tossing what looked like a glaive made of black metal to her.

Si'Mara caught the glaive and extended it pausing for only the briefest of seconds to admire the sanguine colored Yautja script inscribed on the blades. Positioning herself in a fighting stance Si'Mara faced down Si'Lok with black glaive positioned as if it had a conscious desire to meet his flesh.

Hidden Fox released another arrow at a demon attempting to draw a bead on him with a strange looking weapon mounted on its shoulder. The demon saw his arrow coming and ducked causing the arrow to thud into the wall behind the demon, as it came back up it fired a blue bolt out of its shoulder canon. Cursing at the fact the arrow didn't detonate Hidden Fox rolled out of the way as the blue bolt soared passed him, missed his skull by centimeters and slammed into the steel front door blowing clean off its hinges.

Hidden Fox rolled onto one knee and notched another arrow but before he could let it fly the primer cord on the arrow he had fired behind the demon detonated and propelled the demon forward causing it to crash full force onto the floor a few yards from Hidden Fox. The demon wasn't phased for long but Hidden Fox didn't need much time and as the demon stood up Hidden Fox let loose his arrow.

"Pauk!" the bad blood cursed as the arrow struck one his mask's eye sockets. Knowing he had to move quickly the bad blood's hands shot to his face and ripped off the mask. The bad blood threw the mask aside just before it detonated.

Looking back up the bad blood caught just a glimpse of the shadowy signature of an axe head before everything went black.

"Teach you to take your eyes off an opponent" Hidden Fox thought silently yet grimly as he pulled the titanium tomahawk out of the demons skull and slipped it into its belt. Suddenly a roar erupted behind him and he turned to see a steel beam coming straight for him. Hidden Fox rolled forward causing the beam to fly over him and impact a concrete support pillar. The pillar lost a good chunk of concrete but it held.

Hidden Fox stood up and looked at his attacker. The demon was huge at least a few feet taller than the one he had just dispatched. The creature's face was unmasked and the expression that radiated from it was one of unspeakable cruelty. Looking down Hidden Fox saw to his chagrin that his bow had been crushed when the steel had landed on it. He pulled the tomahawk from his belt however and stared down the giant demon, ready to fight until his dying breath.

"Damn it!" Gro'Kesh cursed aloud as he narrowly managed to dodge another strike from Gi'Ha's combi-stick. Their fight had taken them clear around the room and much of it now lay in ruins from their exchanging of attacks.

"What's the matter Gro'Kesh? Getting tired" Gi'Ha said mockingly as the two circled each other like wild beasts in a cage.

"No, I'm only contemplating on how I'll hang your head!" Gro'Kesh replied in a roar as he charged at Gi'Ha throwing a vicious bombardment of blows that Gi'Ha barely managed to block as he retreated backwards.

Releasing a roar of equal fury Gi'Ha counter attacked and spun around Gro'Kesh's strike and his combi-stick impacted the arbitrator squarely on the back and sent him crashing to the floor causing him to lose his combi-stick.

Gro'Kesh rolled onto his back and saw Gi'Ha bringing his combi-stick back to skewer his fallen form.

"Sorry Gro'Kesh, but you have become too much of a nuisance to us and now you must die!" Gi'Ha grunted as he brought his combi-stick down in a spearing motion.

With a burst desperate strength Gro'Kesh rolled out of the way as the tip of the combi-stick penetrated the floor where his heart had been only moments ago. Rolling into a crouch Gro'Kesh deployed his wrist blades and swung them in a backhand attack towards Gi'Ha's leg. Green blood spurted everywhere complimented by Gi'Ha's roars of pain as the wrist blades cleanly severed his leg and sent him crashing to floor.

Wrenching Gi'Ha's combi-stick from the ground Gro'Kesh walked over to where his once honorable friend now lay in a pool of green blood and disgrace.

"Why did you betray your kind" Gro'Kesh asked the anger in his voice turning to one of well hidden anguish.

"Like I said Gro'Kesh, the bad blood brothers are only the tip of the ice burg. You and your little experiment are in deeper than you'll ever know once word of what has transpired here reaches his attention it will only be a matter of time until you are both finished" Gi'Ha said the pain in his voice apparent in every word.

"Who is He?!" Gro'Kesh asked in a tone that almost sounded desperate.

"You…will…find…out…soon…enough!" Gi'Ha said before the breath went out of him and his head collapsed back to the floor.

"I've got to find Young Fury!" Gro'Kesh thought as his mind raced with what he had just been told. Gi'Ha's dying words had been vague to say the least but he knew that he had to find Young Fury. Moving faster than he ever had before Gro'Kesh ran out of the late Fo'Sun's hideout and across the roofs to where he had hidden his ship.

_I hope you have enjoyed this chapter of my story. please Read & Review and I'll return with next chapter in which the final showdown between Miguel and Hrak'Ni takes place! _


	23. Final Showdown

_I'm finally back! sorry that it took so long to return but I have been on a long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. So to make up for the long wait I have decided to simply finish the story. please enjoy _

Final Showdown

Si'Mara held the glaive with an absolute bloodlust as she stared down her long time tormentor, her aggression waiting to be unleashed in a firestorm of black steel.

Shouting out like a mad beast Si'Mara charged. Si'Lok retreated backwards however and she was forced to duck and roll as several plasma bolts zinged over her head and struck what was left of the catwalk's supports. The supports groaned and shuddered like a wounded animal but they remained in place if only just barely.

"Pauk! How am I supposed to get close enough to strike him?" Si'Mara thought angrily as she dodged a spear projectile that ended up imbedding itself in the wall across from them.

Suddenly an idea occurred to her, picking up a loose piece of debris torn free from the ceiling during the brawl she hurled it at Si'Lok just he attempted to draw a bead on her again.

The chunk of metal connected solidly with Si'Lok's forehead causing his shot to go wild. As Si'Mara moved to approach the bad blood she heard the catwalk let out a terrible groan. Turning to look she saw that the wild plasma bolt had smashed into what was left of the catwalk's supports.

"Uh Oh" Si'Mara thought fleetingly as the catwalk's supports buckled and gave way sending both her and Si'Lok sprawling to the first level in a cloud of dust and debris.

"Shit!" Miguel cursed as he watched Si'Mara disappear in the dust cloud. She was strong so he was sure that she had survived but he couldn't help the small feeling of worry he felt. He wouldn't have time to think about it for long as another bad blood charged at him with glaive at the ready.

Miguel acted on instinct and as the glaive came down in a vertical overhead slash he brought his left maul up in a high block stopping the slash cold. Shoving the glaive aside Miguel spun into a crouch and slashed with his right maul causing it to cut cleanly through the bad blood's armor and abdomen.

The bad blood roared in pain and kicked at Miguel trying to drive him off. Miguel retreated a short ways, mounted his mauls and drew his D. Eagles. Without a moment's pause Miguel opened fire peppering the bad blood's already dire wound with a hail of bullets.

The bad blood fell backwards hitting the floor with bruising force and lay there grunting in pain. Walking up to the dying bad blood Miguel tore off its mask, aimed his D. Eagle at the bad blood's face, and discharged the weapon's entire magazine. Reloading his guns Miguel turned to find two more bad bloods challenging him.

"Is there ever an end to these guys?!" Miguel thought sarcastically as he drew his D. Eagles and aimed them just as one of the two bad bloods fired off his spear gun. The spear projectile caught him square in the chest and Miguel looked down expecting to see the spear projectile imbedded in his chest. However to his relief he found that the spear had simply bounced off the armor without even dinging it.

"Looks like I got a return on my investment" Miguel thought as he again brought his D. Eagles to bear on the advancing bad bloods. Suddenly Miguel saw blinding lights at one of the windows followed by a blaring air horn.

"What the hell is…?" Miguel thought fleetingly as an enormous big rig truck crashed through one of the walls that was still intact despite damage it had received during the fire fight. Riding on pure adrenaline Miguel rolled out of the way as the huge truck roared toward him and the bad bloods.

One of the bad bloods took notice and dived out of the way just in time to avoid a collision. The other bad blood was not as lucky however and as it turned to see what was going on the truck impacted him solidly before careening into a concrete divide. Phosphorescent green blood oozed from where the flattened bad blood was now pinned in a fatal vice between the concrete and the truck.

Miguel looked and was relieved to see Benelli hopping out of the cab and hefting his M240 to his shoulder. Miguel was about to signal to him when Benelli spun around aiming in his direction. A moment later Miguel heard him shout, "Miguel, get down!"

Miguel dove to floor just as Benelli opened fire sending swarm of bullets hissing past prone form. Rolling onto his back Miguel could see the rounds impacting another bad blood that had attempted to ambush him from behind. Drawing his D. Eagles Miguel aimed and fired, adding to the sheer number of bullets being poured into the bad blood's body. The bad blood roared in utter pain before he fell to the ground and didn't get back up.

"Thanks Benelli, owe you one!" Miguel called as he turned to face two other bad bloods with his mauls at the ready while Benelli took aim at the remaining one.

"I have never seen or felt such evil in a being before" Hidden Fox thought gripping his hatchet tightly as he continued to face down the massive demon. The demon was much larger than him but he was old enough to know that when it came to battle sheer size mattered little.

"Alright, let us see who meets our fate here" he thought viciously brandishing his tomahawk at the demon.

Shouting an ancient Cherokee war cry Hidden Fox charged at the demon swinging his tomahawk furiously.

"Damn it!" Si'Mara coughed as the dust began to settle. The catwalk collapsing and the resulting fall had dazed here slightly but she had been quick to recover. Holding the glaive at the ready she squinted into the dust trying to get Si'Lok in her sights.

She caught sight of the Yautja and saw with relief that his shoulder cannons had been damaged when the catwalk collapsed. Her relief wouldn't last long however as Si'Lok quickly leveled one of his spear guns and fired at her. Cursing she rolled under the projectile and charged full force towards the bad blood.

Si'Mara leapt forward to complete her strike however Si'Lok jumped backwards and evaded her swipe. Cursing in utter frustration she tucked and rolled as Si'Lok sent another pair of spear tips at her. The roll caused the spear tips to thud into the ground and she stood again to see Si'Lok reloading his spear guns.

"Got to find a way to get close enough to strike him" She thought vigorously as Si'Lok leveled his spear guns at her yet again. Cursing she brought up her glaive and blocked a projectile. Suddenly an idea occurred to her and she began to count Si'Lok's shots very carefully.

Hidden Fox and the massive demon shouted wild war cries and leaped at each other, both filled with an unrelenting desire to kill the other. Hidden fox kicked out and it impacted solidly on the demon's massive chest. The demon seemed unfazed by the kick but Hidden Fox used his new foot hold to leap backwards and charge the huge demon from the ground.

"This demon is more powerful than any other I have yet faced, perhaps this WILL be my last battle" Hidden Fox thought with a grimace as he continued his charge at the enormous demon.

Moving with great dexterity for his age, Hidden Fox rolled under the slash from the demon's wrist mounted blades and swung the tomahawk at the demon's thigh. However the demon dodged the blow with speed that defied its size and came at Hidden Fox again with its blades slashing furiously.

Moving as fast as he could Hidden Fox rolled under the slashing blades and brought the tomahawk out and into the demons side, the demon roared in pain and twisted around coming at Hidden Fox with a backhanded slash. Taking advantage of his smaller size Hidden Fox ducked the triple blades and rolled backwards into a crouch.

Without a moments pause the demon charged yet again swinging his wrist mounted blades wildly. Hidden Fox waited until the last second before he hit the deck and rolled sideways causing the massive creature to crash headlong into the wall. Hidden Fox looked up to see that the demons sheer size had caused the wall to crater but the demon turned to face him seemingly unfazed yet again.

"Alright time to pull out a trick I used to kill another one of your kind" Hidden Fox thought as the demon spun to face him. Howling a fierce war cry Hidden Fox hurled his tomahawk at the demon and charged after it as quickly as he could before leaping into the air as high as he could.

"Pauk!" Hrak'Ni cursed as the Ooman axe flew towards him with blinding speed. Moving as quickly as he could Hrak'Ni reached out and grabbed the weapon in mid flight. As he lifted his head to shout a cry of triumph the Ooman flew out of nowhere and kicked him square in the face causing to fall backwards causing the floor to crater as he impacted it solidly.

Roaring in a maniacal rage Hrak'Ni lunged to his feet and charged the elderly Ooman with speed that seemed impossible for his great size.

The attack came so fast Hidden Fox couldn't dodge in time and shuddered breathlessly as the wrist mounted blades slammed into his chest. "So this will be my final battlefield" Hidden Fox thought. His vision blurred as he turned his head to see Miguel fighting two of the demons. "Good luck young warrior, I leave the rest to you".

"You have made a fool of me and my brothers far too many times Ooman but I will have my revenge yet!" Hrak'Ni thought maliciously as the mortally wounded Ooman warrior slid off his wrist blades to lie dying on the floor at his feet.

Casting a quick glance around he saw that most of his warriors were now lying dead or dying on the ground and decided that it was time to retreat. Moving with incredible speed Hrak'Ni barreled towards one of the gaping holes that one of the Oomans had left when they had entered.

"Come on, I just need a few seconds!" Si'Mara thought angrily as another volley of spear tips embedded themselves in a metal support pillar that she had taken refuge behind. Sticking her head out ever so slightly she saw Si'Lok send even more spear tips at her. Si'Mara pulled back just as the spear tips raced by where her head would have been had she waited a few more seconds.

"I'm sure you will scream as loud as your mother when you die rolling at my feet" Si'Lok taunted as he made to reload his spear guns yet again.

Si'Mara's rage flared up stronger than it ever had before. It was so strong that she could not resist it and she gave off a roar so long, loud, and powerful that it seemed to shake the ruined building. Running out from the pillar she charged at Si'Lok her gold eyes blazing with an unprecedented level of hatred.

"Ha! You have exposed yourself hybrid, now die!" Si'Lok roared as the slides to his repeating spear guns locked and he leveled them at the charging female.

Si'Mara saw the Spear guns aim at her but she didn't care, her rage had become so extreme that she knew that she had to kill this bad blood if it took her until her last breath to do it. Letting out another feral scream she brought up her glaive and deflected Si'Lok's spear tips as easily as if she had waved off annoying insects and continued her charge towards Si'Lok.

Time seemed to slow down as she closed in on her target. This bad blood had taken her mother away from her and now she could feel that it was her time for revenge. Just before her slash met Si'Lok's flesh time seemed to stop as it dawned on her, she had done it. Completing her charge she looked behind her to see the bad blood crumple to the ground in a pool of neon green blood.

"Mother, have I avenged you yet?" Si'Mara thought as her raged cooled and she cast a glance. As her eyes took in the sight of Young Fury tear his maul through the gut of one of the bad blood's her heart began to beat faster.

"It's happening again, every time I've been near him, every time I've thought about him I have felt this, what is this sensation?!" Si'Mara thought as she continued to watch Young Fury strike down his foes in a whirlwind of black steel and green blood.

"Could this sensation be…?" Si'Mara broke off as she saw the huge bad blood running towards a huge hole in the wall. Her anger rose again as she recognized the large bad blood as one of the ones who had assisted in the killing of her mother. Roaring in rage as if hers had no end she took off after the huge bad blood.

"This is turning out to be one wild night" Miguel thought as the two bad bloods he had been fighting collapsed to floor with great gashes cut into their flesh. Looking over he spotted Benelli pouring hundreds of rounds into his bad blood assailant and Miguel could tell just by looking that Benelli needed no assistance. Turning he looked about wildly for Si'Mara and saw with relief that the slain body of Si'Lok lay upon the ground.

Suddenly he heard Benelli cry out "Hidden Fox, Nooooooooo!" Looking over he saw Hidden Fox slide off Hrak'Ni's wrist blades to lye dying on the ground. Anger rose in him as he watched Hrak'Ni turn and run from the battlefield. However his anger turned to consternation as he saw that Si'Mara was hot on Hrak'Ni's heels and her eyes told Miguel that she meant to kill him even if it cost her her life.

"Benelli get yourself out of here before the cops show up!" Miguel called out to Benelli. Even though Miguel didn't say it to Benelli he was more concerned about the Yautja clean up crew finding Benelli than the cops but it was a convenient excuse to get him out of harms way. "What about you!" Benelli called back.

"Don't worry I'll be fine" Miguel called back. "Then take this, you might need it" Benelli called as he tossed Miguel Hidden Fox's titanium tomahawk. "Time to do my job" Miguel thought as he moved as fast as he could and followed Si'Mara and Hrak'Ni out into the city.

As Miguel exited he spotted Si'Mara bounding over the rooftops closely following Hrak'Ni. "Man she really does have a death wish, first she follows me into this war and then she goes chasing after the worst bad bloods possible" Miguel thought as he made his way onto the rooftops and proceeded to follow them.

"Time for my revenge" Si'Mara thought eagerly as she began to close distance on the massive bad blood. She was so eager for her kill that she was taken aback when the bad blood jumped and smashed through a pain of glass before continuing to run through the Ooman building. Undaunted Si'Mara kept up her charge and jumped right after the bad blood without a moments pause.

As Miguel moved even faster he caught glimpse of Si'Mara entering a building through a smashed pain of glass. Casting a glance at the building Miguel stopped and let out a groan. The building that Si'Mara and Hrak'Ni had entered was Sears Tower. It couldn't have been plainer to Miguel that this was where Hrak'Ni planned on making his final stand. Quickly recovering himself Miguel followed them inside, entered one of the stair wells and began to make his way towards the roof.

"Time to kill the one who has humiliated me and my brothers" Hrak'Ni thought as he slammed through another door and came out onto the roof of the Ooman building. Moving to the opposite side of the roof he deployed his triple wrist blades, turned and waited.

As Si'Mara charged through the door she saw to her satisfaction that the bad blood had stopped running and now faced her. "Are you ready to die for what you have done bad blood?" Si'Mara said positioning her glaive into a fighting stance. "You may wield void steel female abomination but you are merely in my way, my true business is with the one who has humiliated me, stolen our sacred void steel armor and killed my brothers" the bad blood said in a cold and steely voice.

"Then you better add me to that list because your sharp shooting brother screamed real loud before he died" Si'Mara said maliciously as she raised her glaive.

Hrak'Ni roared in fury and charged at the female hybrid. The Female was unprepared the speed of his attack and he grabbed her by the neck and causing her to drop her glaive. "Now I will crush the air out of you for what you have done you pathetic hybrid" Hrak'Ni snarled as he began to squeeze his giant hand around her neck steady applying more force, ready snuff out her life in the most prolonged way he could think of.

"Put Her Down!" a voice called out. Looking up he saw the Ooman that had killed many of his minions standing there, a pair of black void steel mauls in his hands, the legendary void steel armor adorning his body and a look of highly controlled anger in his heat signature. "You have killed many of my warriors and my brother Ooman, who are you?" Hrak'Ni asked as he continued to hold the female's neck.

Miguel heard the bad bloods words but all his attention was focused on Si'Mara who was still held tightly by the neck. "Put her down Hrak'Ni your battle is with me" Miguel said as he readied himself into a fighting stance.

"Indeed it is Ooman" Hrak'Ni said cracking the female hybrid over the head effectively knocking her out. Tossing her aside Hrak'Ni again deployed his wrist blades and charged at the Ooman.

Miguel waited until Hrak'Ni had come extremely close before he rolled out of the way. However despite Hrak'Ni's massive size Miguel saw him turn on a dime and bring his wrist blades down. "Shit" Miguel cursed as he brought his right maul into a high block.

He got his guard up just in time and the wrist blades clanged off his maul on a shower of sparks. Miguel could tell that he was outmatched in strength despite being a hybrid. Hrak'Ni was abnormally powerful even for a Yautja. If Hrak'Ni caught him with his full blow even once the battle would be over and he knew it.

He knew however that his size gave him speed and mobility. Twisting around Miguel tornado attacked swing out maul strike after maul strike at blurring speed. Hrak'Ni blocked them but just barely and thin line of blood welled from a new gash. Roaring in anger Hrak'Ni came down with a swipe that grazed Miguel's arm.

Miguel dimly felt the pain but he didn't care as he retreated a short distance and readied himself for another round. Hrak'Ni wasn't slow to disappoint as he quickly pursued Miguel and thrust his wrist blades in a one two punch attempting to impale one into Miguel's chest. Miguel was quick to react however and brought his mauls out into outside blocks one after the other and managed to block the jab cross attack. However his move caused the weapons to lock.

"Pauk!" Miguel cursed as he found himself in a losing weapon lock with Hrak'Ni. This was the kind of situation that he had wanted to avoid. However he quickly saw a way out of it. Collapsing his guard Miguel jumped back just in time to avoid Hrak'Ni's swiping blades.

Regrouping out some distance from the enormous bad blood Miguel charged at Hrak'Ni as low as he could move. Twisting around an underhanded swipe Miguel brought out his right maul slashing Hrak'Ni in the side yet again. Miguel continued moving and turned to see Hrak'Ni hot on his heels and it became apparent to Miguel that Hrak'Ni became even more clouded in his judgment than Si'Mara when he was seized by anger.

"You know your fighting is even more pathetic than your brother's" Miguel said and idea coming to him.

"After I kill you I will mutilate your body Ooman" Hrak'Ni roared out. Miguel could see the anger overtaking Hrak'Ni's eyes. "Hot rage will blind you" Miguel thought as he waited for Hrak'Ni's inevitable charge. "You know that killing your brother was hardly worth my effort, I wonder if I should take his head off my wall to make room for more worthy kills!" Miguel called out.

That was the final straw and Hrak'Ni let out a mad roar of rage and charged full force at him. Holding his ground Miguel waited for his chance to strike as Hrak'Ni continued to close the distance between them at a rapid rate. As Hrak'Ni cocked his arm back to deliver a crushing blow Miguel ducked under the swing and swiped at the bad blood's mid section with his maul.

Miguel grunted with satisfaction as his maul sliced clean through Hrak'Ni's mid section and causing a green streak of blood to splatter onto the roof top. "You never did answer my question Ooman, who are you?" Hrak'Ni grunted as he fell to the ground.

"I am Young Fury and I am the Agent of the Arbitrators!" Miguel's voice rang out into the night as the bad blood slumped to the ground.

"You may have won this battle Ooman but I am only a pawn in this war you fight against us when our true leader learns of what has transpired here you will wish you were killed by my hand" Hrak'Ni grunted quietly to himself before his whole body went limp.

Casting a glance down at Hrak'Ni's body he shifted his glance over to Si'Mara who groaned as she pushed herself to a sitting position.

"Si'Mara are you ok?" Miguel asked as he walked over to her. "Yes, even though I've wanted to kill them myself for so long, I thank you for helping me" Si'Mara responded as she made her way shakily to her feet.

"There is no need to thank me, it was my job and my honor to help you exact your revenge" Miguel said as he continued to stare at her. He could feel his blood rising as he looked at her and he finally came to a realization, it hit him so hard that he might as well have been running into a brick wall but it was the only way that he could explain what he had felt every time he had been near her and had fought alongside her.

"You spared my life, helped and allowed me to exact my revenge on my mother's killers, and on top of that you destroyed many Ooman buildings and killed many bad bloods to rescue me. Why have you done all of this for me?" Si'Mara said as she looked into Miguel's eyes causing their gazes to lock.

As Miguel looked into Si'Mara's eyes he realized that she had come to a similar realization about him. An old feeling of happiness that he had not felt in a long time began to spread through his body. "I guess I did all of that because…" Miguel broke off as a roar rose from behind them.

"Christ! How many times do I have to kill him?" Miguel thought angrily as he saw a badly wounded Hrak'Ni charging towards them. Drawing his shuriken Miguel drew back his hand and let it fly without a moments pause. The shuriken sawed cleanly through Hrak'Ni's mid-section cutting the bad blood in half but Miguel wasn't quick enough and Hrak'Ni managed to launch a smart disc at Si'Mara.

Si'Mara managed to get her glaive up in time to block the smart disc but the force of it propelled her backwards over the edge. "Si'Mara!" Miguel yelled as he ran to the side and dove off after her. He caught hold and embraced her as the two of the plummeted into empty space.

"So now you are willing to die with me" Si'Mara said as she embraced him in return.

"I have looked through this world and others for something to fight for and something that I would be willing to die for" Miguel replied.

"I have finally found something I can die for, it is you Si'Mara, I would be willing to die for you, I…" Miguel broke off as his life began to flash before his eyes from the time of his fathers training, to being recruited as an agent to his Chiva and finally to his first encounter with Si'Mara.

"I did all of this for you because I love you" As Miguel spoke he reflected that it was the first time that he had ever been honest to anyone about how he felt, even himself. "I'm just glad I was able to die with you Si'Mara".

Suddenly Miguel could feel himself hit something hard. "Am I dead?' Miguel thought as he sat up. To his surprise both he and Si'Mara's fall had been arrested and they were now floating in midair. Looking closer Miguel let out a bark of laughter as he saw that they had landed on top of a cloaked Yautja ship. Relief flooded Miguel because he knew without even knowing how he knew that it was Gro'Kesh that he now owed his life to.

"Thanks Gro'Kesh I owe you one!" Miguel shouted as the ship rose back to the roof of Sears Tower. As the ship reached the top of the building Miguel jumped from the top of the ship to the roof.

As Miguel cut the head off of Hrak'Ni he looked over to see Gro'Kesh approaching them however Miguel couldn't read his emotions accurately as his face was masked. "Hey Gro'Kesh how was your hunt" Miguel asked as he held the head and spine up to Gro'Kesh.

"My hunt was successful Young Fury, but nearly as successful as yours from what I have heard" Gro'Kesh said a note of pride in his voice.

"And what exactly have you heard in such a short time Miguel responded as he placed the head of Hrak'Ni on his back.

"Our clean up squads have reported a scene of untold carnage and destruction at a close location. Many dead bad bloods, one dead Ooman and several Ooman buildings with massive explosive damage, I have no doubt that this is your handiwork Young Fury" Gro'Kesh said.

Miguel felt another wave of relief wash over him in the knowledge that at least Benelli had gotten away safely. Looking around Miguel turned back to Gro'Kesh with a slight look of confusion on his face.

"Where is Gi'Ha?" Miguel asked uncertainly.

"He sowed that he was actually dishonorable, we was working as their mole, and so I was both forced and honored to kill him along with that pathetic excuse for a Yautja Fo'Sun." Gro'Kesh said with the note of pride in his voice turning to one of well hidden sorrow.

"So the bad blood brothers are finished for good?" Miguel asked changing the subject.

"Yes it would seem so" Gro'Kesh said as he turned to regard Si'Mara for the first time. "Who is this Young Fury?"

Miguel made to speak but Si'Mara beat him to it. "I am Si'Mara daughter to elder Zi'Gir and Young Fury is my mate!" her words rang into the night and hit Miguel even harder than Hrak'Ni ever could have.

"I'm your mate" Miguel repeated to himself quietly. The words sounded very soothing especially since they had come from her.

"Is this true Young Fury, you have taken this female as a mate?" Gro'Kesh asked turning back to regard the Young Fury intently.

Miguel thought for a moment before he replied "Yes, I have taken her as my mate and I believe she has taken me as well".

"Alright, but rejoice later for now we must return to where the clans are gathering for the return trip home, word has been sent throughout the arbitrators of our glorious victory over the bad bloods and of our great hunt to the hunters!" Gro'Kesh said as he turned and headed back up the ramp of his still cloaked ship.

"Shall we go now my mate" Miguel said suggestively to Si'Mara. She smiled at him and together the two of them followed Gro'Kesh onto the ship.


	24. Mates

Mates

"So I have killed yet another bad blood for my trophy wall and destroyed much of my home town in the process" Miguel thought as he held up the head of Hrak'Ni and gazed at it for what seemed like hours.

Sitting back in one of the massive passenger seats Miguel let out a sigh of relief. It had been the hardest hunt and fight that he had yet experienced and he was glad that it was over.

"So Young Fury, please do tell me about your hunt, how you managed to kill Hrak'Ni, and above all else how you actually managed to take a mate through your hunt" Gro'Kesh said as he sat down next to Miguel.

"Well it's kind of a long story, but I think we have enough time for it" Miguel replied as he began to recount his recent adventure, he didn't miss a thing from his first landing to his final battle with Hrak'Ni. The only thing he missed in his story was his involving Benelli, however taking in the fact that Benelli would be hunted down because of his involvement Miguel figured that it would be better if he let that detail slide.

As he finished his story Gro'Kesh turned and looked at him thoughtfully. "You involved an Ooman warrior, killed a huge number of bad bloods, and used Ooman weapons in conjunction with our weapons to do it, now that is something that has never happened in all of the long annuls Yautja history" Gro'Kesh said shifting his gaze to focus on Si'Mara who was sitting asleep in the seat across from them.

"So why did we take that detour on our way back to the fleet?" Miguel asked disinterestedly.

"I was assigned to pick up a survivor of a bad blood attack on one of the hunting parties" Gro'Kesh responded his voice showing signs of exhaustion. "The survivor was very full of himself, and he aggravated me to no end" Gro'Kesh continued sounding disgruntled this time.

"So you didn't kill him for being so stuck up?" Miguel asked sounding like he was too tired to care about anything at the moment.

"I almost did but I realized that he just wasn't worth it" Gro'Kesh replied dully.

"Yeah I can see that, by the way Gro'Kesh do you mind if I ask you a few questions that have been nagging at the back of my mind?" Miguel asked his eyes still observing the head of Hrak'Ni.

"What would you like to know Young Fury?" Gro'Kesh said locking his gaze so that there eyes met.

"What happened to the ship that I came here on?" Miguel asked with consternation. He didn't want the ship to fall into human hands and the thought of that happening made him cringe slightly. The last thing he needed at this point was the goddamn government getting wind of what had happened.

"It was recovered by a clean up team; also they managed to hide the mass bad blood killing you made with smaller explosives. Everything has been covered up and taken care of, you don't need to concern yourself with the huge mess you made" Gro'Kesh replied.

"Then there is only one more question I have to ask"

"What do you consider me in Yautja society?" Miguel asked his gaze burrowing right back into Gro'Kesh's eyes. He wanted only a straight answer and nothing less than the truth would suffice for him.

"I cannot say myself; technically you are a young blood because you have passed your Chiva and technically you are an arbitrator because you hunt and have killed bad bloods" Gro'Kesh said recoiling thoughtfully. It then occurred to Miguel that Gro'Kesh wouldn't probably ever know the answer to that.

"So am I just a tool then?" Miguel asked Gro'Kesh causing the Yautja to stand up and Miguel saw that he was swelling with indignant pride.

"No you are a great hunter, my pupil, my fellow warrior, my agent, and my friend" Gro'Kesh said the Yautja words coming from his mandibles taking on a tone of great pride.

"Thanks Gro'Kesh, even if you're the only one in all of Yautja society who thinks those things about me I can live with that" Miguel replied taking his eyes off of Gro'Kesh and fixing them on the sleeping Si'Mara.

"You know the first time I met her and knocked her out I couldn't kill her even though I was obliged to, and from that I drew her into my war with the bad bloods which was ultimately my world, and I blew up a section of the city so that she would not be killed by the hands of the bad bloods" Miguel said placidly as he continued to gaze at Si'Mara.

"It sounds like you chose right in selecting a mate who is so strong and courageous" Gro'Kesh responded as he also shifted his gaze to look at Si'Mara "Besides for a hybrid there is no denying that she is beautiful" Gro'Kesh continued as he turned his gaze back to Young Fury.

"But do I really deserve a mate like that Gro'Kesh? One who is so beautiful, courageous, and strong, I mean I think most of the arbitrators and ancients view me as only the first dispensable soldier in their war on the bad bloods" Miguel said the depression in his voice very evident.

"NEVER say that you are a tool to anyone, if you no longer wish to hunt the bad bloods than say so and you can become a regular hunter or even return to earth if you want" Gro'Kesh said forcefully, he wasn't yelling but Miguel could tell that Gro'Kesh meant what he said.

"You think I could if I asked you to?" Miguel asked his voice still placid.

"You have done more than most Yautja and many arbitrators have ever accomplished in their lifetime, for this reason I think that the ancients would let you leave the life of an agent or even the Yautja way of life behind if you chose to do so. Also for this reason I believe that they would let you have a mate, there could be no greater way of proving yourself worthy of one" Gro'Kesh replied in Yautja. Miguel's ear translator didn't pick up emotion very well but he could tell from Gro'Kesh's voice itself that his mentor was being sincere.

"Then what about this armor? The message said that I should give it to an honorable arbitrator" Miguel said indicating the void steel armor that still adorned his body.

"From what I have seen and what you have done I believe that you are the one who would wield the armor the best should you choose to continue as an arbitrator, you have earned the right to wear it" Gro'Kesh said after a short deliberation.

"Well I'm glad to see how you got my back" Miguel said as he took his gaze off of Si'Mara.

"Now the only thing left on my mind is whether Si'Mara will actually become my mate, I know what she said to you back there Gro'Kesh but I wonder whether or not that was simply because she wanted an excuse to be there or because she actually wants to be my mate" Miguel said quietly to himself as he stared into space absentmindedly.

"I actually do want to be your mate Young Fury; I don't lie especially about my affections and if you want to be my mate in return I couldn't be happier" Si'Mara's voice sounded as if she was right next to him.

Miguel looked over to see Si'Mara staring at him and saw to his relief and joy that they no longer held grief, vengeance or sorrow but had softened to display what seemed to be genuine affection.

"How long have you been awake?" Miguel asked keeping his gaze on her.

"Ever since you began talking with your mentor here" Si'Mara replied indicating Gro'Kesh.

"I'm very glad that you allowed me to have my revenge and even helped me carry it out but you are also different from every other male that has tried to get close to me" Si'Mara continued flashing Miguel an impish grin as she did so.

"How am I so different from the other males who have tried to get you as a mate?" Miguel asked returning her grin.

"Normally many males stayed away from me because I was a hybrid however a few of them tried to impress me by gloating over the amount of skulls they had. However I never liked the kind of males who simply showed off with an exaggerated sense of bravado and ego about themselves" Si'Mara said her grin fading.

"However you were different, you showed reserve, pride that was not over enthusiastic, and you allowed me to hunt bad bloods with you as an equal even if I could not do it beside you, but above all else you proved to me that simply because I have an Ooman side it does not make me weak. You're my constant reminder that simply being half Ooman does not mean that a warrior is weak." She continued as her turned her eyes downward as if to hide her emotions.

Getting to his feet Miguel walked over to stand in front of her. "You have felt ashamed of what you are for a long time, is that why you came to earth for this hunt?" Miguel asked as gently as he could, the Yautja may have had strong physical body but their pride was damaged way too easily.

"Yes, I thought that by going to earth for a hunt I could make peace with a what I am, I'm just glad that I was able to" Si'Mara said bringing her eyes up to meet his.

Miguel had no warning and suddenly he found himself in Si'Mara's embrace. "I guess you really do want to be my mate" Miguel thought as he returned the embrace. Miguel couldn't remember ever being happier in his life than he was right now. He almost wished that he could stay like this with her forever.

Suddenly a loud roar caused him to break from Si'Mara and deploy his wrist blades. He turned into a fighting stance to see yet another Yautja standing there. He wasn't quite as large as Gro'Kesh but there was no doubt that he was angry. Miguel could sense the rage pouring from off of the Yautja's body.

"What are you doing with my mate you stinking Ooman!" the Yautja roared at Miguel. Miguel held he ground however and sunk deeper into a fighting stance.

"What do you mean your mate?!" Miguel asked incredulously as he looked over to Si'Mara for some kind of explanation. However all her attention was focused on the newcomer and she looked jut as angry as he did.

"I already told you that I am not your mate Hi'Cho!" Si'Mara shouted icily.

"So you would prefer this pathetic Ooman over me, I will not have it; he is not good enough for you!" Hi'Cho roared as loud as he could.

"Christ this guy does have a big ego" Miguel thought angrily as his gaze shot from Si'Mara to Hi'Cho and back to Si'Mara.

"Let's see if you can back up those words" Miguel said in a low voice. He had already come a long way and destroyed much to reach this point and he sure as hell wasn't going to be bested at this point by a Yautja young blood with an over inflated ego.

"Very well Ooman then we will see which one of us is worthy to take Si'Mara as a mate" Hi'Cho said maliciously as he looked Miguel up and down with his eyes.

"So do you want to throw down right here or do you have something in mind?" Miguel asked still refusing to lower his guard even slightly.

Hi'Cho deliberated for a few moments before an idea seemed to come to him. "Very well then, as soon as we return to the ship of the Black Dawn clan you and I will fight in the challenge of the blade and the winner will have Si'Mara!" Hi'Cho said coolly before he turned and exited.

Si'Mara gasped in horror and Miguel turned to face Gro'Kesh. "What the hell is the challenge of the blade?" Miguel asked in a confused voice.

"The challenge of the blade is a very ancient way of settling disputes over a mate and has been seldom evoked since ancient times" Gro'Kesh said his voice concerned.

"I figured out that much but what does it involve?" Miguel continued

"Essentially the female ultimately controls who will become her mate however to males may fight over her regardless if the challenge of the blade is evoked. The ritual consists of locking the two combatants in an arena and having them fight until one dies" Gro'Kesh said shifting his gaze away from Young Fury and into empty space as he thought hard.

"Ok so it's a fight to the death, but it must be called the challenge of the blade for a reason" Miguel said plainly as he too began to think hard.

"It is fought in a very specific way, no armor may be worn; both combatants are armed with ritual knives and a weapon of their choosing however the knife must be used for the fatal strike, it is the most specific and decided challenge of our customs and the winner is dubbed as the one who is worthier as a mate" Gro'Kesh's words sunk into Miguel as he comprehended how serious the situation had become. Still he had come too far to stop now.

Looking over to Si'Mara he saw her nod at him as if to say that no matter what happened she would always be his mate. "Alright if he wants a fight then it's a fight he'll get, no flirting punk human or Yautja will stop me!" Miguel's words rang with his resolution as he turned to begin preparing for yet another challenge.


	25. Challenge of the Blade

Challenge of the Blade

As Miguel walked into the ship of the Black Dawn clan he felt a twinge of nervousness. He was unknown to all of the clans outside of his own and he knew that because there was so much secrecy involved in what he did word of his escapades would probably never even reach the elders of the other clans.

He didn't really care what other clans thought of him however because in his mind popularity among the clans meant little on the hunt. However he did desire respect as it as one thing that was hard earned and most desired.

Following the rest of the small party towards the ship's exit ramp he quickly gave the head of Hrak'Ni to Gro'Kesh who mounted it on his back before Gro'Kesh discreetly made his way to the front.

As the ramp hissed down and they began to walk out Miguel wondered how many Yautja would show up to greet them. As he walked down the ramp he froze.

"Jeez, the whole freaking clans got to be here, guess Si'Mara and Hi'Cho are pretty important in this clan" Miguel thought as he observed the dozens if not hundreds of Yautja in the landing bay.

From the crowd a small group stepped forward and from the gray dreadlocks of the lead Yautja Miguel quickly deduced that it was elder Zi'Gir and his entourage.

"Greetings elder Zi'Gir It is an honor to be received by your clan in such a fashion" Gro'Kesh said as he gave a gesture of respect to Zi'Gir.

"The honor is mine arbitrator Gro'Kesh, when my daughter's pack was attacked by bad bloods I feared the worst; I thank you for returning her" Zi'Gir replied as the crowd began to disperse.

"Indeed, there is something that needs to be discussed with you privately before I take my leave" Gro'Kesh said quietly so that only Zi'Gir could hear him.

Zi'Gir looked at him for a moment before he nodded "very well Gro'Kesh come to my meeting room where we can discuss this".

Miguel watched as Gro'Kesh beckoned to him, Si'Mara, and Hi'Cho to follow and together they made their way up to the arbitrator meeting room.

"Time to break the news to our host" Miguel thought sarcastically.

"So you want me to host a blade challenge between to warriors who vie for being my daughter's mate?" Zi'Gir asked taken aback

"A warrior of your clan issued the challenge so now you must respect it, the two combatants must fight and your daughter will decide whether or not to make the winner her mate" Gro'Kesh said as he indicated Miguel and Hi'Cho.

"Indeed but is the other warrior able to take a mate yet?" Zi'Gir asked as he stared at Miguel

"He has completed his Chiva so he is capable of taking a mate by our customs" Gro'Kesh replied vehemently.

"I see, then I will prepare an arena for the challenge, each combatant will prepare themselves in the mean time, now go" Zi'Gir said as he stood up and exited.

Miguel looked over at Hi'Cho briefly and both shot each other an angry look before the two of them stood up and likewise left the room.

"I worry about this challenge Young Fury; this stunt could bring about unwanted attention" Gro'Kesh said quietly to himself.

"You worry about him that much?" Si'Mara said speaking up for the first time since they had reached the ship.

"Indeed I took him and trained him and he has proved to be a more valuable warrior than I could ever predicted, what about you? don't you care about the one you declared was your mate?" Gro'Kesh asked in an irritated fashion as he turned to look at Si'Mara.

"Of course I worry, I care for Young Fury more deeply than anyone I have met before but despite the fact that Hi'Cho is an aggravating flirt and an egotistical jerk I still don't want to see either of them die for me" Si'Mara replied the sorrow in her voice becoming apparent.

"It is too late now when they enter that arena only one will leave; it has been set in motion and will not be stopped now" Gro'Kesh said as he turned to leave.

"So I will have my skills and fate tested yet again" Miguel thought as he made his way through the halls and back to the ship he had arrived on. He was very aggravated now and even his excellent emotional control was straining. He had destroyed part of a city, killed many bad bloods and through all else he had actually fallen in love.

"Well then, I guess this will determine if I am the right mate for her, if not then I will die for a love that I never should have had" Miguel thought sorrowfully as he entered Gro'Kesh's ship where some of his weapons were currently being kept.

"One weapon of my choice, what should it be?" Miguel said quietly to himself as his eyes darted through each of the weapons he was carrying with him. He stopped suddenly as he eyed the titanium tomahawk style axe that had belonged to Hidden Fox. Picking up the tomahawk he looked at it and knew right on the spot that it was the weapon that he should use.

Doffing the trench coat had been wearing since the battle with Hrak'Ni he hooked the axe into his loincloth and prepared to head out to the arena. He had only taken a few steps when his feet kicked a small object sending it rolling across the room. Walking over to it he picked it up and realized that it was the black war paint that Hidden Fox had given him before the battle.

"I forgot all about this, maybe it can serve a purpose after all" Miguel thought an idea coming to him. Unscrewing the cap Miguel began to apply the paint in an ancient tribal design that belonged to the Cherokee tribe. He had just finished applying the finishing touches onto his face when Gro'Kesh walked into the room.

"It's Time to go, the arena has been prepared" Gro'Kesh said placidly as he handed Young Fury a ritual knife.

Nodding to show that he understood Miguel took the knife and followed Gro'Kesh out of the ship and towards the arena. They walked through the halls for several minutes that seemed like hours to Miguel before he stopped short in front of a large door.

"Beyond this door you will enter a waiting area for the arena and from there you enter the arena to fight and possibly die, are you willing to possibly give your life for her? You know that there are other possibilities for taking a mate Young Fury" Gro'Kesh asked again.

"If it was for her then I would gladly give my life for her or her affections, and as for another mate, I'm sure possibilities exist, but none would be interested in an Ooman like me, no matter who skill full I am" Miguel replied as he turned to face the door.

"Very well then, good luck Young Fury go and kill the upstart Young Blood who seeks to take your mate" Gro'Kesh said as he hit the panel next to the door causing it to open and Young Fury walked inside to stand in front of the final door to the arena.

"I thank you deeply for your confidence Gro'Kesh, I was foolish for having doubts about accepting her as a mate" Miguel said averting his eyes from his mentor.

"You are the agent of the arbitrators you have more than earned the right to have a mate and the right to kill anyone who would steal her from you" Gro'Kesh responded bringing his gaze to meet Young Fury's.

"Now to see if I really am a worthy mate for you Si'Mara" Miguel thought gripping the axe in one hand and the knife in the other.

Suddenly the door opened and Miguel walked onto the arena floor where he saw that many Yautja had gathered to watch their fight. "Of course they'd show to watch this" Miguel thought as the crowd jived and jeered at him. He didn't really care however as he watched Hi'Cho come out roaring his mightiest roar to the crowd.

"And I thought he had a big ego before" Miguel thought aggravated as Zi'Gir's voice rang out over the crowd. From where he was Miguel could see that Hi'Cho had decided on the wrist blades as his secondary weapon. It was predictable so Miguel wasn't surprised, he was surprised however to feel his heart beat faster in excitement and his bloodlust grow in anticipation. This fight would be to the death, period.

Moving slowly Miguel walked toward the center of the ring to face down Hi'Cho. As they reached the center of the ring both himself and Hi'Cho turned to face the elder Zi'Gir who was mounted high so as he could see the whole fight without obstruction. Miguel saw to his chagrin that Si'Mara was seated next to him.

"Combatants you are here to fight in the ancient challenge of the blade, by the laws that govern this challenge you may not leave until one of you lies dead and you must use your ritual knife to execute the fatal strike. The winner may become mate to my daughter, Now Fight!!" Zi'Gir called out and the crowd roared in a massive cheer.

Miguel expected and was not disappointed to find Hi'Cho made the first move and as Hi'Cho slashed downwards at him with his wrist blades Miguel rolled backwards out of reach.

"Stand still so you can die the death you deserve Ooman!" Hi'Cho roared in Yautja as he turned and charged at his Ooman challenger as fast as he could however at the last second the Ooman sidestepped his charge and tripped him causing him to crash into the barrier surrounding the arena.

"Before you open your big mouth to spew venom you better learn how to back up your words Hi'Cho" Miguel called in Yautja over the still jeering crowd.

Miguel coolly held his ground as he watched as a dazed Hi'Cho recovered from the crater he had just made in the barrier. "I'm going to mutilate your corpse for that insult Ooman" he heard Hi'Cho growl as he stood up.

"Christ do you ever shut your mouth" Miguel thought inwardly. "Before you can do that you have to kill me first" Miguel taunted hoping that he could get Hi'Cho to charge in a blind rage again. It worked and Hi'Cho charged at him like a mad beast blades and knife held ready.

Miguel held his ground until the last second before he sidestepped again this time bringing his knife out in a slash that Miguel could sense had made contact. Turning again to face Hi'Cho he saw to his satisfaction that Hi'Cho was clutching the gash and shouting curses at him in Yautja.

"You want to try that again?" Miguel asked mockingly as he wiped the green blood off of his knife.

Roaring in fury Hi'Cho charged yet again swiping at Miguel with a series of clumsy blows that Miguel either easily dodged through shifting his body or blocking with his ritual knife. Sensing that Hi'Cho was getting very frustrated Miguel disengaged and retreated a short distance.

Miguel found it weird that Hi'Cho's movements were so undisciplined even though he had gone through the Chiva and the vigorous Yautja training that preceded it. Then it hit him, it was a battle of will, concentration and keeping cool and from what Miguel had experienced so far was that Hi'Cho was easy to both taunt and trick.

Also he realized for the first time that nearly all of his ring battles had been with the elite among Yautja warriors and as such he had fought only the cream of the crop. He couldn't make himself over confident though, that could often become a fatal weakness even in the best of warriors.

"So Hi'Cho, are you going try to attack me with more of those piss poor excuses for fighting moves or am I actually going to see something this time" Miguel taunted knowing with a good degree of certainty as to what would come next.

As he had expected Hi'Cho charged and thrust the knife at Miguel's chest. Acting on instinct Miguel coolly used his own knife to parry the thrust and push Hi'Cho's arm upwards. Once Hi'Cho's arm was not protecting his stomach Miguel brought out his tomahawk and swung it into the unprotected flesh. Miguel grunted with satisfaction as he heard Hi'Cho roar in pain.

Wrenching out the tomahawk Miguel retreated a short distance again and waited for Hi'Cho's inevitable retaliation. Looking up he saw Si'Mara watching him intently. Miguel couldn't quite read what she was feeling but he knew it was conflicted.

"Too bad, toying with you was not my favorite thing in the world Hi'Cho but I can't see Si'Mara suffer like this anymore" Miguel thought as he contemplated his plan for how to effectively complete the ritual.

As Hi'Cho charged at him yet again Miguel twisted under another awkward blow from the wrist blades and swung his tomahawk full force into Hi'Cho's ankle severing the Yautja's foot amidst roars of rage and a growing pool of green blood.

Slowly and deliberately Miguel walked towards Hi'Cho who was breathing heavily trying to hide any emotion from the unbearable pain.

"Even if I could possibly win this fight by some cheap trick, I could never hunt with pride again, kill me Ooman you have proved yourself a much worthier warrior" Hi'Cho grunted through the pain.

"I am sorry, you showed great promise as a hunter but you pursued and attempted to steal a mate from me who had chosen me now we stand in this ring to die over her" Miguel said calmly drawing his ritual knife.

"Please love Si'Mara genuinely, she certainly needs it after her hard life" Hi'Cho grunted so quietly that only Miguel could hear him.

"I promise that I will, now die with honor, brother" Miguel replied just as quietly.

With that Hi'Cho roared his loudest and fiercest roar of pride as Miguel plunged the knife into his brain stem and he fell. He was dead instantly.

"Why did this have to happen?" Si'Mara thought sorrowfully as her eyes took in the scene of Young Fury standing over the corpse of Hi'Cho. She had never liked Hi'Cho but dying over her was something she had never wanted. As she looked back down to the ring she saw Young Fury staring back at her. His eyes told her that he took no pride in what he had done but something else about the way he was looking at her gave her comfort.

Dimly she heard her father calling an end to the match and the roar of the crowd but she only heard them as if they had been a mile away. Standing up from where she had watched the match she turned and headed to where the fighters had prepared for combat.

"I have killed yet again, but was this really worth it?" Miguel thought wearily as he exited the arena. Killing Hi'Cho had not been fun in the least because he viewed it as a senseless killing but he had taken Hi'Cho's dying words to heart. "I will always love her, and if she chooses to have feelings for me in return then that is all that I need" Miguel thought as he made his way to the prep area.

Upon entering the prep area he was surprised to find both Si'Mara and Gro'Kesh standing there with looks of relief apparent on both their faces.

"You have succeeded yet again Young Fury I wish you well with your new mate, but please hurry as time is short and we must get back to the hunt soon" Gro'Kesh said relief now evident in his voice as well as his features.

"Si'Mara I am sorry about what I did to Hi'Cho" Miguel began but Si'Mara cut him off.

"No, he was the one that challenged you over me, it was his choice and though it is sad to see him die, I am glad that you were the one who emerged victorious" Si'Mara said her voice steady.

"Then we are now truly mates" Miguel said slowly moving closer to Si'Mara as he spoke.

"Yes, we are" Si'Mara replied as she began to move closer to him as well.

"Then Gro'Kesh I have a request to make" Miguel said without looking at the arbitrator.

"And what is that?" Gro'Kesh asked curiously

"I would like my mate to be able to accompany me on my hunts and help me when she can" Miguel said still not taking his eyes off Si'Mara whose face had turned positively radiant with the idea.

"I'm not sure that I can do that, after all becoming one who hunts bad bloods is not an easy accomplishment" Gro'Kesh said simply.

"She had proven herself to be strong and brave along with the fact that she killed the bad blood brother Si'Lok, I am sure that would be enough to make any ancient agree with my request as it is similar to what I achieved when you chose me" Miguel said in a low tone.

"You have a very good point Young Fury, I am sure that they will agree" Gro'Kesh replied as he turned to leave the room.

As Gro'Kesh left the room both Miguel and Si'Mara locked into a deep embrace. "I'm glad that through all the misfortune in my life that there has been at least this happiness" Si'Mara said.

"As am I, now how about we go and do what we became mates to do" Miguel said a different kind of excitement rising in his voice.

"Are you sure you can keep up with me?" Si'Mara replied coyly.

"Lets go and find out" Miguel replied as they broke apart.

And with that the two of them walked out of the prep area together happily heading for the sleeping chambers.


	26. Epilogue

Epilogue

"Who the hell were that Ooman?!" Qu'Li panted in terror as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop to get away from the scene of total carnage that had just occurred. It was supposed to have been a simple, hold a meeting to discuss what to do about the death of Hrak'Ni as it had been such a terrible blow for their organization.

"I didn't know an Ooman could even come close to having that kind of ability" Qu'Li thought hysteria nearly getting the better of him.

They had just started their meeting when from out of nowhere an Ooman had dropped into their midst and had begun scene of carnage that had surpassed anything that Qu'Li had ever seen.

He had stood frozen in horror as his bad blood comrades had been cut down by the Yautja armored Ooman who had employed both Ooman and Yautja weapons in his killing spree.

"Is this Ooman some new weapon that the arbitrators have arrayed against us?" Qu'Li thought wildly as he fought to get himself under control.

"If it is then our leader will definitely want to know about it, I've got to get the word out" he continued his mind racing.

"Only managed to flee the slaughter this time? Not too bad" Miguel thought as he continued to trail the bad blood that had escaped his attack. It had been a few weeks since the challenge with Hi'Cho and it felt good to be back on the hunt and fighting the never ending war against the bad bloods.

"If only I knew where my damn combi-stick landed" he thought angrily. His void steel combi-stick had been lost during the fire fight and he had been unable to retrieve as he had to pursue the escaping bad blood.

"All those bad bloods had the same mark that Hrak'Ni had, I wonder if this group of bad bloods is more intricate and widespread than we know" Miguel thought as he continued to pursue the bad blood. The identical marks had bothered him, tattooing had been a very common method to identify human gangs and this was similar to the point where it was eerie.

"Maybe this bad blood will have the answer to some of these questions" Miguel thought as he began to slowly close distance on the fleeing bad blood. If the group's infrastructure was as intricate as he suspected than he doubted he would get far but he would at least get something to start with.

Crossing another section of rooftops Miguel continued to close distance on the bad blood. His cloak was activated so he wasn't worried about any bystanders spotting and the bad blood seemed too intent on where he was going to notice him.

"Got to find another den, got to get reinforcements" Qu'Li thought desperately as he continued to move as fast as he could even though it seemed to him as if he was just going aimlessly in circles.

"Come just a little more" Miguel thought eagerly. The bad blood was almost within range of a shuriken and Miguel was sure that he could demobilize him and keep him alive long enough to give some answers to his many questions.

"If Hrak'Ni was only the tip of the ice burg than what else does this group have to hide?" Miguel thought as he readied his shuriken for a take down. However before he threw his shuriken he saw the bad blood drop to the ground a few rooftops ahead of him.

"What the hell?" Miguel thought briefly as he moved closer to the rooftop to see a figure emerging from thin air. Miguel recognized it at once as a Yautja cloak and smiled as he landed onto the roof tops.

"Glad to see you still follow me on my hunts my mate" Miguel said as his eyes took in the sight of the bad blood lying on the ground, his left leg severed by a glaive hit.

"You know you'd probably get nothing done without my help" Si'Mara teased as Miguel moved towards the fallen but still living bad blood.

"Okay, now do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way" Miguel asked disinterestedly because quite frankly he didn't really care how this one chose to do it.

"I will die before I forsake my leader" Qu'Li growled as he reached for his self destruct. He had barley made a move towards it when the female's glaive sliced straight through his wrist comp severing his hand in the process.

"Now" Miguel Said as the bad blood roared with the pain "why does a group such as yours exist and what do those marks mean?" Miguel asked indicating the mark burned into the severed hand.

"It will matter little, soon you will see our power when we tear your life apart before we destroy you" the bad blood spat. Before either Miguel or Si'Mara could react the bad blood drew a hidden dagger and plunged it right into his heart. Miguel felt the Yautja's vitals but it was too late.

"Well that's another dead lead but at least its one less bad blood to worry about" Miguel thought frustrated as he turned to face Si'Mara. As soon as he looked at Si'Mara his frustration melted away. He would worry about this groups and the bad bloods another day but for now he had his mate and that was enough.

As Miguel and Si'Mara moved together in the direction of their ship they remained oblivious to the fact that two others had been watching them.

"So this is Young Fury, the great agent of the arbitrators that has become a feared scourge among even the most hardened bad bloods, killed two of my greatest generals and is still only a rumor to my best intelligence networks" the caped and hooded Yautja said quietly to the heavily armored giant of a Yautja that stood by its side.

"Then why don't we just eliminate him, I will do the honors myself if those weakling warriors can't do the job" the giant Yautja responded.

"No, I have something more useful in mind for this skilled warrior, and if I do it right he will turn his incredible skills to my disposal and thus they will not be wasted" The hooded Yautja replied in the same monotonous tone.

"How do you plan to do that?" the giant asked in a confused voice.

"Do not worry; all will be revealed in time but rest assured in the end that young Ooman warrior will fight for me" the hooded Yautja said as the pair turned in the opposite direction and disappeared soundlessly into the night.

_So ends my first fan fic, I am thinking of making a sequel after I finish Warrior of the Queen that would combine the story lines, but I am still unsure anyway please tell me what you think._


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